Cooley this week announced the firm was picking up 54 lawyers from Dow Lohnes’ Washington office. The acquisition, which takes effect January 1, gives the Palo Alto, Calif.-based Cooley a bigger regulatory presence in Washington and puts it among the top 35 largest firms here. (Cooley was the 59th largest firm in Washington at the end of 2012.) Dow Lohnes leaders determined the firm needed “to be part of a bigger platform.”
Legal Times sat down with Cooley CEO Joe Conroy, Ryan Naftulin, the partner-in-charge of Cooley’s Washington office and Dow Lohnes managing partner John Byrnes to talk about the merger—from the culture of the two firms to where Cooley sees itself in the Washington legal market. Byrnes assesses how Dow Lohnes struggled to compete and offers his thoughts on how the two firms will blend.
