Locke Lord

Locke Lord LLP
Headquarters Chase Tower
Dallas, Texas
No. of offices 23
No. of attorneys 1000+
Major practice areas General Practice
Date founded October 2, 2007
Company type Limited liability partnership
Slogan Practical Wisdom, Trusted Advice
Website
www.lockelord.com

Locke Lord LLP is an American law firm of approximately 1,000 lawyers with 19 domestic and four overseas offices. Locke Lord is consistently voted as one of the top 100 most prestigious law firms in the world by Vault and American Lawyer.[1] Locke Lord was formed on October 2, 2007, after the combination of Texas-based Locke Liddell & Sapp PLLC and Lord Bissell & Brook LLP, a national law firm headquartered in Chicago. The firm changed its name from Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell LLP to Locke Lord LLP on September 27, 2011.[2]

On January 10, 2015, the merger between Locke Lord and Edwards Wildman Palmer was completed. The merged firm adopted the name Locke Lord, although legacy offices of Edwards Wildman Palmer used the name Locke Lord Edwards for a transition period.

History

Legacy Locke Liddell & Sapp

The oldest component of Locke Lord traces back through the legacy Locke Liddell & Sapp side to a firm founded in Dallas, Texas by Maurice Locke in 1891. It is the second oldest continuously operating firm in Dallas. The firm became Locke & Locke when Maurice Locke's sons ran the practice, and his grandsons renamed it Locke Purnell. In 1916, another predecessor firm, Huggins & Kayser, began developing independently in Houston, Texas. Frank Liddell, known as an outstanding trial lawyer, became a partner in the Houston-based Huggins & Kayser firm in 1921. Charles Sapp then joined the predecessor Houston firm in 1946. Back in Dallas, six young attorneys spun out of the oldest firm in Dallas and formed another predecessor firm in 1965 under the name Rain Harrell & Emery. In 1987, Maurice Locke’s original Dallas firm and the newer Rain Harrell Emery Young & Doke firm merged to create one of the then-largest law firms in the Southwest: Locke Purnell Rain Harrell. In 1999, the Dallas firm Locke Purnell Rain Harrell merged with the Houston firm of Liddell Sapp Zivley Hill & LaBoon to form Locke Liddell & Sapp. At the time, this was the largest law firm merger in United States legal history. Locke Liddell & Sapp continued to exist until the 2007 national merger with Chicago-based Lord Bissell & Brook.

Legacy Locke Liddell & Sapp was known for its work in the real estate investment trust and energy sectors.

Legacy Lord Bissell & Brook

Legacy Lord Bissell & Brook began in 1914 when three lawyers—Donald Richberg, Harold L. Ickes, and John Lord—formed a Chicago law practice. In 1924, John Lord left that firm to open a Chicago predecessor firm by the name of Lord, Wire & Cobb. Cushman Bissell, Sr. joined Lord’s firm in 1931 as a named partner. In 1954, Herbert Brook became a named partner and the firm’s name changed from Lord Lloyd & Bissell to its legacy name—Lord Bissell & Brook. The firm would operate under that name until its 2007 merger with Texas-based Locke Liddell & Sapp.

Legacy Lord Bissell & Brook was known for its work in insurance and reinsurance litigation, particularly in the Chicago market. The firm was known as an “insurer-side firm” that tended to represent insurance companies and not individual policy holders.

Merger of legacy firms

In May 2007, management of each firm first proposed that legacy Locke Liddell & Sapp and legacy Lord Bissell & Brook merge into one national firm. On September 12, 2007, the partnership of each firm approved the merger, to be effective October 2, 2007. Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell LLP gross revenues and size place it within The American Lawyer’s “AmLaw 100” annual rankings of the top United States law firms.[3]

Practice areas

Locke Lord is a general practice or full-service law firm, which means that it provides services in virtually all legal matters. The firm's core practice groups include:

Intellectual property expansion

In February 2009, Locke Lord announced it would more than double the size of its New York office via recruiting some 30 attorneys from the intellectual property boutique law firm Morgan & Finnegan, which dissolved. The firm also launched an office in San Francisco with attorneys from Morgan & Finnegan. In New York, Locke Lord took on the Morgan & Finnegan lease.[4]

Hong Kong expansion

In March 2013, Locke Lord announced it had expanded its Hong Kong office through an association with five partners from Cheung & Lee, a local Hong Kong firm.[5]

Offices

References

  1. ↑ http://www.vault.com/company-rankings/law/vault-law-100?pg=2
  2. ↑ "Law firm shortens name to Locke Lord," Houston Business Journal, September 27, 2011 http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2011/09/27/law-firm-shortens-name-to-locke-lord.html
  3. ↑ Firm Profiles: Locke Lord, The American Lawyer, http://www.americanlawyer.com/firmProfile.jsp?name=Locke+Lord
  4. ↑ Matt Byne, 'Morgan & Finnegan faces dissolution,' 26 January 2009. http://www.thelawyer.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=136482. Accessed 2 February 2009.
  5. ↑ 'Locke Lord boosts Hong Kong with five-partner association,' 13 March 2013. http://www.thelawyer.com/news/regions/asia-pacific-news/locke-lord-boosts-hong-kong-with-five-partner-association/3002391.article.
  6. ↑ Locke Lord Opens Hong Kong Office Led by Internationally Recognized REIT Attorney Brad Markoff, http://www.lockelord.com/pr_2011hongkongopens. Accessed 24 January 2011.

External links

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