‘Cadwalader approached this the way our clients approach a sophisticated M&A deal. They hired a pre-eminent M&A shop in Davis Polk and engaged in a competitive process, so I was delighted when I got the call saying ‘we want your vision,’ says Hogan Lovells’ CEO Miguel Zaldivar of the firm’s planned merger with Cadwalader.
For Zaldivar, yesterday’s announcement (18 December) that the firm is in discussions to combine with Wall Street’s Cadwalader as early as next summer marks the end of a long hunt for a New York merger partner for the transatlantic firm. The firm previously walked away from talks with legacy Shearman & Sterling in March 2023, before it ultimately combined with Allen & Overy.
Speaking to Legal Business immediately after briefing partners on the Cadwalader plans, Zaldivar acknowledged that it also marks the end of a protracted process that saw the pair start speaking in November last year, before conversations stalled around March, accelerating again only in recent weeks.
With Cadwalader running an almost auction-style process that saw a number of other firms coming under consideration, including Alston & Bird, it’s fair to say that Hogan Lovells’ selection as preferred merger partner did not always look guaranteed.
‘It was the most professional process you can imagine. We didn’t take issue with the fact that things weren’t always going our way,’ maintains Zaldivar, who says the determining factor for selection was Hogan Lovells’ vision for what the combined firm would look like. ‘They wanted validation and to reach a conviction that this was going to work. It took time to get to alignment, but this is going to be a marriage made in heaven.’
Partners at both firms are expected to vote on the deal in spring next year and, assuming it gets the go-ahead, the pair will combine as Hogan Lovells Cadwalader as early as 30 June 2026. This will put Zaldivar at the helm of a roughly 3,100 lawyer firm with combined revenues of roughly $3.6bn – making it the largest-ever law firm merger, based on revenues at the time of announcement.
‘The market is consolidating,’ says Zaldivar as the legal market prepares for the launch of three new transatlantic tie-ups within the next year in Hogan Lovells Cadwalader, Winston Taylor and Ashurst Perkins Coie. ‘There are winners and losers – the people that are diversifying, becoming global and who share the commitment to quality that Hogan Lovells and Cadwalader share are going to win.’
Cadwalader’s current co-managing partners Pat Quinn and Wes Misson, who will both take on international management roles in the merged firm, are equally excited.
Having set up a committee to consider options including diversifying the finance-driven firm’s practice without a merger, the pair spent much of 2025 bringing the New York firm’s partnership together behind the idea of a combination, before selecting Hogan Lovells as the preferred match.
‘We’ve been approached by a lot of firms over the years, but never one that made as much sense as this,’ says Quinn. ‘This is a compelling opportunity for our firm. You take a global law firm that practises at an elite level, across the Americas, across London, EMEA and APAC, and then you add the oldest law firm on Wall Street – and one that is a pioneer in finance.’
‘We cannot be more excited about this combination; it just makes so much sense,’ adds Misson. ‘Cadwalader and Hogan Lovells coming together is like the missing puzzle piece. It gives us everything we need to take our practice global and provide our clients with that global reach. The sky is going to be the limit with this new platform.’
According to its leaders, the combined firm will represent all 20 of the 20 largest financial institutions in the US, and 18 of the top 20 global financial institutions, with the finance piece particularly important for Hogan Lovells, which already has a strong client base with multinational corporates operating in highly regulated sectors and financial institutions.
‘With the [practice] balance we already have, our brand, more than $3bn in revenue and our ambition to really make it in New York, to have a Wall Street firm with a high quality, but limited, offering is music to my partners’ ears,’ says Zaldivar. He also stressed the appeal of Cadwalader’s Charlotte practice, pointing to the city as the second-largest banking market in the US, before insisting of the deal: ‘This is going to happen.’
‘The headline here is that this is two firms coming together to create a firm that there is nothing else like in terms of completeness of coverage and excellence of the practices across the globe,’ adds Quinn, who led the initial discussions with Hogan Lovells.
Misson is equally bullish: ‘In so many different ways, we complete each other. We complete Hogan Lovells by adding that finance and Wall Street brand and practice, and they complete us by giving us the global firepower and the global platform for our clients.’
AG managing partner Andrew Johnston (pictured) put the firm’s success down to ‘the combination of a strong focus on domestic markets and clients, coupled with international growth.’
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