Legal News

Report: ?If the Deal Falls Through, Thacher Proffitt Will Likely Go Under?

By Dan Slater

As the summer ebbed, all eyes were on Heller Ehrman as the ailing firm sought a merger partner. Would it be Baker & McKenzie? Mayer Brown? It would be neither. And, by late September, the firm announced plans to shutter its doors. Similarly, around the same time, Thelen was reportedly talking with Nixon Peabody. But that flirtation flopped, too, and in late October the firm announced it would wind down its affairs as well.

Now Thacher Proffitt & Wood, whose robust structured finance practice was one of the first to be buffeted by the subprime mortgage meltdown, also finds itself in the precarious position of trying to skirt dissolution. The Legal Times, citing “sources aware of the discussions,” reports that Thacher Proffitt is in talks with Atlanta-based King & Spalding.

The Legal Times writes:

One New York legal consultant says the discussions have been ongoing for the past three to four months, and that the firms hope to reach an agreement by year-end. The consultant says King & Spalding is considering taking on about 100 of Thacher’s 195 lawyers, but that it’s not yet clear which practices and offices the 100 lawyers would come from. “There’s a tremendous amount of uncertainty about who’s going to be invited to the party,” says the consultant, who asked not to be named. . .The New York consultant and another individual familiar with the discussions say that if the deal falls through, Thacher Proffitt will likely go under.

The Legal Times’ calls to Thacher Proffitt and King & Spalding were not immediately returned.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on December 11, 2008 (boomark / email).