CHICAGO - Boston-based Nixon Peabody LLP and Chicago-based Ungaretti & Harris LLP will merge on Feb. 1, a pairing that lands Nixon a seasoned public finance team in Chicago while broadening Ungaretti's reach nationally.
Nixon Peabody opened a Chicago office in 2007 with a team of patent lawyers from the former Jenkens & Gilchrist and has had its eye on broadening its practice groups for some time, said Richard Jones, a Nixon Peabody partner and a member of the leadership team for its public finance group.
"All along we wanted a Chicago office that was like our other" major metropolitan offices that offer legal services across a broader spectrum including public finance, he said.
Nixon Peabody employs more than 600 lawyers, including more than 20 partners in its public finance group in offices across the country. The firm operates internationally with offices in Hong Kong, Shanghai and London.
The 40-year-old Ungaretti & Harris brings to the union about 100 lawyers that practice in the areas of corporate law, healthcare, real estate, litigation, government relations and public finance. It has four partners in its public finance group. The firm's only office is in Chicago.
Nixon Peabody ranked 11th last year nationally among bond counsel, working on 60 deals valued at $7.2 billion and did not make the rankings in the Midwest, according to Thomson Reuters data. Ungaretti & Harris ranked 257th nationally working on six deals valued at $73 million. All of its deals were in the Midwest where it finished 64th.
The combined firms will keep the Nixon Peabody name. Nixon Peabody's Andrew I. Glincher will remain managing partner & chief executive officer.
Ungaretti public finance partner Thomas Fahey will serve as the managing partner of the Chicago office. The firm's core public finance business has been in the not-for-profit and healthcare sectors, primarily in the Midwest, although in the healthcare sector its reach has been broader.
Fahey said the merger suited both firms' needs. "The Nixon team now has a Chicago base of operations for their extraordinary broad-based practice and we now have a national reach that we will be using to expand our 501(c)(3) business," Fahey said.
Like the healthcare sector that has seen a stream of consolidation and dwindling of smaller, independent firms, Fahey said the time was right to bolster the law firm's depth and breadth due to the growing sophistication of litigation and transactions.
