Cozen O’Connor to Merge With Minneapolis Firm Moss & Barnett (1)

Philadelphia-born law firm Cozen O’Connor is getting an injection of more than 50 lawyers in the US Midwest by acquiring Minneapolis-based Moss & Barnett.

The firms announced the deal, set for Jan. 1, in a Monday statement. The merger will upgrade the Philadelphia-born law firm’s footprint in Minneapolis to more than 70 lawyers, the firm said.

“This combination advances our commitment to deepen our presence across the Midwest, a strategically important region for the firm and our clients,” said Michael Heller, Cozen’s chairman and CEO, in the statement. The more than century-old Moss & Barnett’s deep community roots “make it a perfect fit for Cozen O’Connor’s strategic vision for growth,” he said.

Cozen, which ranks among the 100 largest US law firms by revenue, is one of several middle-market law firms with a national reach that have used mergers with local firms to fast-track growth in secondary and tertiary markets. Midwest firm Taft Stettinius & Hollister has expanded outside of its home market of Cincinnati through strategic mergers, announcing this year it would open an office in the Atlanta market once it finalizes a merger with local firm Morris Manning & Martin.

Middle market firms can comfortably fit the modest rates in secondary and tertiary markets into their existing pricing models while the biggest firms grow in premiere markets by aggressive lateral hiring of partners that command high hourly rates.

Cozen O’Connor formed in the 1970s as an insurance subrogation and recovery firm in Philadelphia and has expanded its breadth to litigation and transactional practices in more than 30 international markets. Moss & Barnett launched in 1892 and practices in family law, energy, and real estate finance. Its clients have included electricity provider Otter Tail Power Co., according to court records.

Heller said in an interview his firm’s leadership team agreed Minneapolis was a target market for the firm’s growth because of the Twin Cities’ high concentration of Fortune 500 companies, including Target Corp. and Ameriprise Financial Inc., and its middle-market business community.

“We have a strong middle-market practice and continue to pursue those clients while also continuing to expand our client portfolio because now the Minneapolis folks have a national platform by which to engage those clients,” he said.

Firm leaders expect their combined 2025 revenue to exceed $800 million. Moss & Barnett expects to generate $40 million this year, said the firm’s president and CEO Brian Grogan.

Exploring Options

The firms broached the possibility of a tie-up more than a decade ago. Grogan said firm leaders turned down the opportunity because their clients’ needs were largely local to the upper Midwest region.

But over the last 10 years, Moss & Barnett has seen its clients expand their operations—and legal needs—throughout the US. Clients need help with “buy-sell agreements in other jurisdictions and litigation matters in other states,” Grogan said. “We do estate planning for folks in Minnesota who want to retire in a warmer climate. It’s not that those needs didn’t exist in 2014, but they have become more prevalent in our law firm.”

Grogan said his firm’s partners, who voted unanimously in favor of the merger, recognized the risk of losing their independence to a larger firm. Cozen is more than 10 times larger in terms of lawyer count and annual revenue. But Grogan said those concerns were “offset by the realities of practicing law today.”

“Cozen invests heavily in AI technology to improve legal tech for their clients,” he said. “They can do that at a scale that a small regional firm can’t compete with. That’s something you have to consider when you ask how can we continue to provide the best opportunities for our lawyers and clients.”

Grogan said all of Moss & Barnett’s lawyers will have a role at the combined firm, but a final decision hasn’t been made about every one of its professional staff. “We’re excited that almost our entire team will be going,” he said.