denotes premium content | Nov 19 2008 
News
posted 14 Oct 2008
Orrick agrees German merger
INTERNATIONAL LAW firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP is entering the legal market in Germany via a merger with German firm Hölters & Elsing.
The decision was put to a vote at both partnerships, and creates a combined firm of some 1,100 lawyers working out of 21 offices across North America, Europe and Asia. Hölters & Elsing has offices in the German cities of Berlin, Frankfurt and Düsseldorf.
Orrick chairman Ralph Baxter described Hölters as “one of the last major, independent law firms in continental Europe’s leading economy”.
The two firms had “compatible work ethics, long-term goals and culture – crucial to a successful merger”, he added.
“This merger adheres to Orrick’s tradition of simultaneously providing clients with integrated global reach and local expertise.”
Hölters & Elsing co-founding partner, Prof. Dr. Siegfried H. Elsing, said his firm had been approached by a number of global law firms, but that it had singled Orrick out for its “visionary leadership, cultural compatibility and sophisticated management”.
Elsing and former managing partner Dr. Arno Frings will both sit on Orrick’s European Supervisory Committee, while Frings has been given the title ‘partner in charge of Germany’.
In late 2007 Orrick and what was then Dewey Ballantine decided to abandon an anticipated merger,
with Dewey going on to merge with LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae.
