Faegre to merge with Indianapolis law firm

Faegre & Benson emerged as Minnesota's largest law firm after agreeing Wednesday to combine practices with the Baker & Daniels firm of Indianapolis.

The new firm, with 770 attorneys and revenue in excess of $400 million, will be called Faegre Baker Daniels, featuring a powerhouse of major clients and locations from Denver to Shanghai.

"This makes us a truly national firm with strong international capabilities," said Andrew Humphrey, Faegre's managing partner. He will retain that title with the new firm.

The partners said no layoffs are expected from the merger, and the new firm will not have an office acting as headquarters. The deal will be effective Jan. 1, 2012.

Faegre Baker Daniels would rank as the 68th-largest firm in the U.S., surpassing Dorsey & Whitney as the state's largest. Faegre was founded in 1886 as Cobb & Wheelwright. It took the Faegre & Benson name in 1940 and even survived the Thanksgiving fire in 1982 that destroyed the Northwestern National Bank Building where the firm was located.

Faegre's client list includes some of the biggest business names in Minnesota, including Target, Wells Fargo, Seagate Technology, Cargill and Novartis Pharmaceuticals.

Baker & Daniels was established in Indiana in 1863. Clients include pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly, real estate developer Simon Property Group and medical device manufacturer Zimmer Holdings, all of which are headquartered in Indiana.

"It'll give us greater bench strength," said Baker's chief executive partner, Tom Froehle, who will assume the title of chief operating partner and focus on more day-to-day operations. Froehle said there are no planned lawyer or staff layoffs.

The deal also gives the merged firm a much broader national and international presence.

Faegre has offices in Minneapolis, Denver and Boulder, Colo., Des Moines, London and Shanghai. Baker & Daniels has offices in Indiana, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Beijing.

"For firms with clients with multiple locations, it makes a lot of sense to be able to represent them on the ground there," said Cindy Eidness, division director of the Minneapolis office of Beacon Hill Staffing Group, a legal staffing and search firm. "Merging with a law firm in another location is obviously a great way to increase client service."

Jodi Stanke, chief executive of legal consultant Talon Performance Group, said Faegre "is the perfect size" to increase its footprint.

Baker & Daniels also has a public policy and lobbying arm in Washington, D.C., called B&D Consulting. It is staffed with 45 professional consultants who work on Capitol Hill and at federal regulatory agencies on issues affecting health care, energy and financial services. The group will now be called FaegreBD Consulting.

The merger is a "big deal" for both firms, but combining practices of this size and scope presents a variety of challenges, said Herbert Kritzer, a University of Minnesota law school professor who teaches the business of law.

"You still have the issue of cultures and how they will merge," Kritzer said. "You see that in any major business merger."

Leaders of the merging law firms said they were confident their teams could work together. Humphrey said the firms know each other well, noting that the Faegre and Baker firms have been in merger discussions for nearly two years.

"This will have a huge, immediate impact on the firms but we wanted to position ourselves for the long term," Humphrey said. "Our clients are looking more and more for depth and breadth of capability. We have to grow with our clients."