Two heavyweight legal players—one born in Manhattan, the other forged between London and Sydney—are locking arms to create a legal juggernaut. Kramer Levin and Herbert Smith Freehills have officially sealed the deal: their partners gave the green light to a merger that will birth a new global firm with over 2,700 lawyers and a projected revenue north of $2 billion.
Mark your calendars—this legal fusion goes live June 1. The merged entity will operate under the name Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer, and its presence will stretch across 26 offices worldwide, putting it squarely in the upper echelon of the legal world’s global elite.
While the two firms first hinted at their union back in November, the latest confirmation reveals a full-on commitment to expansion—especially in the lucrative U.S. market. For Herbert Smith Freehills, whose U.S. footprint had been limited to a single New York office, this merger offers instant growth stateside. For Kramer Levin, it’s a ticket to global scale.
Kramer Levin brings along its trio of U.S. hubs—New York, Silicon Valley, and D.C.—and its $435 million in 2023 revenue. Herbert Smith Freehills, itself a product of a 2012 transcontinental merger, adds its 2,400-strong lawyer base and a 2023 revenue haul of $1.6 billion to the mix.
Notably absent from the merger is Kramer Levin’s Paris office—over 50 lawyers from that outpost already made a separate move earlier this year to join Morgan, Lewis & Bockius.
From across the Atlantic, U.K.-rooted law firms have long looked to the U.S. as the next frontier. The legal industry has been watching this dance play out for years—mergers, acquisitions, and strategic hires in New York, D.C., and beyond. The Kramer-HSF union is the latest, and boldest, in that march.
Just last year, another pair of legal titans—Allen & Overy and Shearman & Sterling—made headlines with their A&O Shearman merger, forming a nearly 4,000-lawyer behemoth.
Now, Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer steps into the spotlight with its own brand of cross-continental ambition, ready to take on the legal world from both sides of the pond.
