Hogan Lovells and Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft combine to create world's fifth-largest law firm by revenue

Hogan Lovells and Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft have agreed to merge in what is described as the largest law firm combination in history, creating a combined entity to be known as Hogan Lovells Cadwalader. The merged firm will generate annual revenue in excess of $3.6 billion and field approximately 3,100 attorneys across offices in the Americas, EMEA, and Asia-Pacific, making it the world's fifth-largest firm by revenue. The combination is structured around shared strength in finance, corporate, regulatory, and disputes practice areas, with particular emphasis on the New York–London corridor — the transatlantic axis that drives the highest-value cross-border mandates in global capital markets and M&A. James Doyle, corporate and finance practice group leader, and David Bonser, global managing partner for the corporate practice at Hogan Lovells, will work alongside Cadwalader's Wes Misson, co-managing partner, who described the deal as fulfilling a shared ambition to build a firm capable of competing at the very top of the global legal market. The combined firm will bring Cadwalader's established structured finance, capital markets, and financial regulatory practices — historically among the strongest on Wall Street — together with Hogan Lovells' broad international footprint and deep European regulatory capability. The deal accelerates a consolidation trend in Big Law driven by the need to match the scale and geographic reach of the largest US-headquartered firms as they expand into London and European markets.

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