Winston & Strawn Talks Merger With London’s Taylor Wessing (2)

Winston & Strawn and UK law firm Taylor Wessing are discussing a merger following a string of transatlantic Big Law tie-ups.

“Winston & Strawn and Taylor Wessing UK confirm that they are in discussions regarding a potential combination, which would build upon the complementary strengths, shared ambitions, and combined international reach of the two firms going forward,” the firms said Friday.

Winston, one of the oldest law firms in Chicago, has deep benches on the litigation and transactional sides. The firm brought in more than $1.27 billion in revenue in 2024 and its partner profits hit $3.5 million, according to data from the American Lawyer.

Taylor Wessing, which operates as a network of affiliated firms known as a verein, would spin off at least its UK operations and combine them with Winston. Some reports on the talks also have the firm’s offices in Ireland, Belgium, Netherlands and the Middle East joining Winston. Taylor Wessing’s UK businesses brought in $379 million in revenue in its last fiscal year.

Taylor Wessing is “a well-respected law firm” with strengths in the lower, middle market private equity space, said Scott Gibson, director of UK legal recruitment consultancy Edwards Gibson. The firm is best known for its work in the technology sector, he said.

Winston in London is doing deals of a similar stature and size to Taylor Wessing, so a merger between the two “actually sort of works quite well,” said Chris Clark, director of London’s Definitum Search. “They are quite complimentary, so I think it’s a sensible move.”

Winston & Strawn is widely known as a litigation firm, but in recent years has built a corporate practice that rivals its litigation team in size.

Dan Webb, the firm’s co-executive chairman, led the Winston & Strawn team that advised Fox News and parent company Fox Corp. in its $787.5 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems over a blockbuster defamation lawsuit. The firm’s other executive co-chair, Jeffrey Kessler, was a lead attorney in a case that struck down rules barring compensation for US college athletes. He’s currently representing Michael Jordan’s 23Xl Racing & Front Row Motorsports in an antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR, in which the parties agreed to a settlement on Thursday.

The timeline for the merger talks is not clear.

“There is nothing to formally announce at this stage, so we will not be commenting further at this time,” Winston and Taylor Wessing said in the statement.

Large law firms are increasingly looking to combine amid a race to scale across the industry. US-UK tie-ups historically have been tough to pull off because of culture clashes and incompatible pay systems.

“There is a little bit of pressure now, as a result of all these other mergers taking place, for firms to do something,” Gibson said.

The perception seems to be that UK firms want to tie up with an American firm to get access to the biggest law market in the world and US firms are keen to invest in London, according to Gibson.

Seattle’s Perkins Coie and UK law firm Ashurst said in November that they expect to merge next year. Manhattan’s Kramer Levin and UK-Australia firm Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer officially combined in June.

Clark said the US legal market is the largest, and to not have a presence in it is a mistake for firms that do sizable transaction work.

“If you are a UK firm and you’re not UK domestic focused, or selling a boutique offering, then you need to have an international presence and you absolutely need to have US exposure,” Clark said. “The firms that don’t have a proper tie-up or merger to open up that US market, I think they’ll get left behind.”