The deal, to be completed during the first quarter, will create a firm with nearly 2,000 lawyers, they said. The combined firm will operate under Holland & Knight's name.in 2022 after a pandemic-era slowdown, and legal industry watchers expect more to come this year. Only two combinations between firms with more than 100 lawyers took effect last year.
The move gives Holland & Knight a base in Nashville, a growing legal market that has drawn in several big firms in the past two years, including K&L Gates, Spencer Fane and Womble Bond Dickinson. Waller's Nashville office has more than 235 lawyers, the bulk of the firm. It has other outposts in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Birmingham, Alabama and Austin, Texas. The combined firm will have 35 offices globally, the firms said.