Perkins Coie, the Seattle-founded law firm targeted by President Donald Trump, is merging with London’s Ashurst.
The deal, announced Monday, is expected to launch the combined firm into the world’s 20 largest by gross revenue at $2.7 billion. It gives Ashurst a long-sought entry into the competitive US legal market and offers stability to Perkins Coie after a tumultuous stretch.
Ashurst CEO Paul Jenkins and Perkins Coie’s Bill Malley will co-lead the combined firm when the deal closes next year.
“Our ambition for many years has been to grow in the U.S. with the right partner: a firm with deep, trusted expertise that complements our own,” Jenkins said in a statement. “We have now found that partner – Perkins Coie is an ambitious, forward-thinking law firm meeting its clients at the forefront of technological change.”
The merger is the latest in a string of transatlantic tie-ups, including last year’s combination of the UK’s Allen & Overy and Manhattan’s Shearman & Sterling. It comes about six months after the launch of HSF Kramer.
Perkins Coie in March won a court order blocking Trump’s executive order against the firm, which threatened government contracts for Perkins Coie clients and banned its employees from accessing federal buildings. The ruling, and decisions striking down similar orders against three other firms, is on appeal.
The president accused the firm, whose lawyers advised Hillary Clinton’s 2016 White House campaign, of “weaponizing” the legal system. The lawyers retained Washington firm Fusion GPS for research that resulted in the so-called Steele dossier, which alleged Trump’s campaign coordinated with Russian government officials.
Perkins Coie detailed the “existential risk” posed by Trump’s order in a court filing. It threatened federal contracting opportunities for the firm’s 15 largest clients, who collectively paid Perkins Coie more than $343 million in fees last year, nearly a quarter of its annual revenue.
