Merger Insights from Court Data – Troutman Sanders and Pepper Hamilton to Combine as “Troutman Pepper”
on Topics: Future Law | Legal Data API | Legal Tech
Effective April 1, two of the nation’s largest firms are joining forces to become a global leader in litigation, health sciences, real estate, energy, insurance, private equity, technology, and a plethora of other industries.
Formerly Troutman Sanders and Pepper Hamilton, the new “Troutman Pepper” will place 1,100 attorneys throughout 23 offices in a dozen states and Washington, DC. Projected to bring in and estimated $900 million in revenue this year, the new firm would rank 47th in the AmLaw’s rankings.
Steve Lewis, Troutman Sanders’ Managing Partner and soon to be CEO of the new firm, says that the firms’ complementary practice areas make the merger beneficial to clients: “Troutman Pepper will offer… increased resources and an expanded geographic footprint,” he says. “With these factors, we see a tremendous upside for both our clients and potential new growth.”
Similarly, Tim Gallagher, Pepper Hamilton’s Executive Committee Chair and the upcoming Vice Chair of the new firm, says that the executives’ reasoning for the merger extends beyond the interweaving of their complementary practice groups: “From a cultural standpoint, we are significantly aligned on values,” he says. “We both are considered innovators, having invested early in new tools and technologies, and we are both well-known for delivering exceptional value to our clients.”
A Deeper Dive: What the Data Says
What makes this merger so significant is its substantial market share: Our team at UniCourt ran reports for the two firms to identify their case volumes for 2018 and 2019 across all U.S. District Courts.
Here is what we learned:
- Troutman Sanders has appeared as counsel of record in roughly 3.5 times more cases than Pepper Hamilton.
- Both firms primarily represent defendants with Troutman Sanders representing 84% defendants and Pepper Hamilton representing 79% defendants.
- Troutman Sanders’ top three practice areas are (1) Finance, (2) Contract, and (3) Personal Injury.
- Pepper Hamilton’s top three practice areas are (1) Labor, (2) Contract, and (3) Intellectual Property.
- Troutman Sanders’ top five jurisdictions are (1) Eastern District of Virginia, (2) Northern District of Georgia, (3) Central District of California, (4) Northern District of California, and (5) District of New Jersey.
- Pepper Hamilton’s top five jurisdictions are (1) Eastern District of Pennsylvania, (2) District of New Jersey, (3) Eastern District of Michigan, (4) Eastern District of New York, and (5) Southern District of New York.
What makes our platform – and the data we’ve uncovered – so significant is that it goes beyond just the numbers of top practice areas, jurisdictions, and party type: It shows the two firms’ actual clients. This type of granular, highly-specific data presents an opportunity for the firms to combine forces and take over certain industries. In other words, firms can see who their competitors are representing, which companies they would benefit from targeting, and how they can complement one another’s practice areas and industries.
Top Parties Represented by Troutman Sanders
- Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC
- Ocwen Loan Servicing, LLC
- Ally Financial, Inc.
- Johnson & Johnson
- Experian Information Solutions, Inc.
- Ethicon, Inc.
- Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.
- Capital One Bank
- Nationstar Mortgage LLC
- Consolidated Edison, Inc.
Top Parties Represented by Pepper Hamilton
- Aetna Life Insurance Company
- Hartford Life and Accident Insurance Company
- Plycem USA LLC
- Elementia USA Inc
- Eli Lilly & Co
- The Hartford
- Tela Innovations, Inc.
- Allura USA LLC
- Allstate Insurance Company
- West-Ward Pharmaceuticals Corp.
Viewed through this lens, the data shows that the firms appear to be merging with an eye toward growth, competition, and increased participation in the global market. In short, it marks a trend in BigLaw into increasingly collaborative, interdisciplinary terrain.
The firms note that they will now look to dominate the market for health sciences, real estate, energy, insurance, finance, private equity, construction, and technology, further consolidating shared strengths with an aim toward stimulating growth, gaining competitive advantage, and increasing market share.
Leveraging Legal Data as a Service
Firms seeking mergers to grow their market share can access normalized court data to conduct enhanced due diligence on potential merger targets. Specifically, they can do this by leveraging UniCourt’s Legal Data as a Service (LDaaS) offerings to get insights into their competitors’ clients so that they can determine who may be a valuable merger target before signing a formal agreement.
UniCourt provides LDaaS via our APIs to AmLaw 50 firms and Fortune 500 businesses for accessing normalized court data for business development and intelligence, analytics, process automation, risk management, and developing machine learning models.
If you are interested in accessing normalized court data for vetting merger opportunities or for other innovative uses, contact us and we’ll be in touch.