Haynes and Boone’s merger with a 19-lawyer London boutique, announced Thursday, marks the largest trans-Atlantic union since the November 2012 combination of Norton Rose and Fulbright & Jaworski. It also breaks a relative drought in cross-border whole-firm mergers this year.

Last year saw nine cross-border whole-firm deals; notable deals in 2015 included Dentons’ combination with 3,681-lawyer firm Dacheng and three others involving smaller firms with more than 100 lawyers.