Two East Coast law firms are tying the knot.
Philadelphia-based Pepper Hamilton announced yesterday that it had acquired Freeh Sporkin & Sullivan, former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director and federal judge Louis Freeh’s boutique law firm. The firms will merge on Sept. 1.
Pepper also acquired Freeh’s international risk-management firm, Freeh Group International Solutions, which will continue to operate independently. Freeh will join Pepper’s executive committee.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the merger is expected to help Pepper expand its white-collar defense and corporate-compliance practices. Pepper currently has more than 500 lawyers in seven states and Washington, D.C.; the merger will add more than 20 lawyers to the combined firm, including eight lawyers to the white-collar defense and investigations practice group.
In July, Freeh Sporkin & Sullivan made headlines when it released a scathing report on the Pennsylvania State University sex-abuse scandal in which it criticized the school’s former general counsel for mishandling the Jerry Sandusky child-molestation investigation.
Read Bloomberg Businessweek for more merger details.
For more InsideCounsel stories about law firm mergers, read:
K&L Gates, Middletons in merger talks
Mergers of U.S. law firms dip in second quarter
Dewey’s potential merger with SNR Denton falls apart
Hildebrandt Institute says 20 law firms merged in Q1 201214 U.S. law firms merge in Q1 2012
