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Ballard Spahr announces merger that ‘is just the tip of the next iceberg’ in Pacific Northwest

By Debra Cassens Weiss

September 10, 2024, 9:32 am CDT

Ballard Spahr is expanding into the Pacific Northwest through a merger with Lane Powell, the law firms announced Monday.

Ballard Spahr will gain offices in Anchorage, Alaska; Portland, Oregon; and Seattle through the merger, which is set to take effect Jan. 1, 2025, according to a Sept. 9 press release. The combined firm will have more than 750 lawyers in 18 U.S. offices.

“We’re bullish on the Pacific Northwest—we really see opportunities in all three cities,” Peter Michaud, the chair at Ballard Spahr, told Law.com.

He joined Ballard Spahr through its 2018 merger with Lindquist & Vennum and became the chair this year. He will also chair the newly merged firm.

Greg Walther of Emerald Search Partners, a legal staffing and recruiting company, told Bloomberg Law that the Pacific Northwest is home to major technology companies, as well as an emerging biotech industry.

The merger “is just the tip of the next iceberg,” Walther said. “I’m sure there are a lot of other Am Law 50 firms looking at merging or planting a flag here in the Pacific Northwest.”

The merged firm will be called Ballard Spahr, although in the Pacific Northwest it will use the name Ballard Spahr Lane Powell for the next few years, Michaud told Law360.

Lane Powell, founded in 1875, has nearly 180 attorneys. Ballard Spahr has more than 600 lawyers in 15 U.S. offices.

Michaud told Bloomberg Law that Ballard Spahr will keep a one-tiered partnership “for the foreseeable future,” even though Lane Powell has a nonequity partnership tier.

The issue is “something that we’ll probably tackle as a combined firm,” Michaud told Bloomberg Law. In the meantime, he said, the focus will be on helping every Lane Powell attorney understand that they are important “regardless of what their what their title is.”

Michaud also told Bloomberg Law that Ballard Spahr is considering other growth opportunities in intellectual property and in the areas of Texas and Florida.

“As the combined firm, all of us will work together to figure out what … the next move should be,” he said.