On Jan. 1, 2025, Ballard Spahr and Lane Powell will effectively combine, creating a firm with more than 750 attorneys across 18 U.S. offices. The new firm will go by the name Ballard Spahr, but will use the name Ballard Spahr Lane Powell in the Pacific Northwest for a time.
Barbara Duffy, president of Lane Powell, told Law Week that the firm has been on the path to a merger since she came into the role in 2019.
“We went through a pretty introspective process of focus groups among our stakeholders and our shareholders,” Duffy said. “And just lots of conversation and discussion, and where we landed was that we wanted to grow, and we wanted to grow materially and we wanted to grow outside of the Northwest.”
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Duffy said it gave Lane Powell the opportunity to study other firms. They hired a consultant, who created a set of criteria as they evaluated a large number of firms. A number of firms were passed on by Lane Powell, and then they got to Ballard Spahr.
“It was a firm that was always on our list, but one we didn’t know much about, but our consultant did,” Duffy said. “She really encouraged us to have some conversations, because she felt like these brands were very similar in different markets.”
Duffy recalled an early conversation with Peter Michaud, chair of Ballard Spahr, where he told her about his experience combining with Ballard Spahr from his old firm, Lindquist & Vennum. She remembered Lindquist & Vennum’s reputation from her time in law school at the University of Minnesota. Duffy said she saw several parallels between Lindquist & Vennum and Lane Powell.
“Like Lane Powell, it was a firm that punched above its weight in many areas,” Duffy said. “They’re sort of pillars of excellence, and a firm that really had much opportunity, but really needed more infrastructure or a larger platform to really maximize that opportunity.”
After more in-person meetings and discussions in Minneapolis and Philadelphia, the shareholders of Lane Powell voted unanimously in favor of the combination.
Michaud, the first chair outside of Philadelphia in Ballard Spahr’s 140-year history, told Law Week that expansion in the west was one of his goals following him taking the position on Jan. 1.
“I really feel like we have a lot to offer potential clients,” Michaud said. “I’ve been actively looking for new talent, and what I always tell our attorneys is I’m more focused on the talent. If we can find talented attorneys who can fit into our culture, I really don’t care where they’re located, because we just want to have those people with us.”
Michaud said it was a bonus once he met and got to know Duffy and the people at Lane Powell that the firm was in the west and in a part of the country that Ballard Sphar wasn’t. He hopes that adding an office in the Pacific Northwest will strengthen both Ballard Spahr’s presence there and its presence across all the firm’s western offices.
Damon Barry, managing partner of Ballard Spahr’s office in Denver, said that the merger has helped the western offices and strengthened the firm’s presence. He said he was also excited for selfish reasons, as he studied and played football at the University of Washington.
While the merger with Lindquist & Vennum had a direct effect on the Denver office with the absorption of several lawyers, Barry said that this merger will have an indirect effect.
“What it’s allowed us to do is one, bring in great visibility on Ballard and the West as a whole,” Barry said. “Now we’re getting those phone calls and [they’re] saying, ‘We see that you are growing,’ and how that affects your opportunity, that growth is phenomenal. From having the extra resources — time zones are important sometimes to the clients. And now we can go west, with time zones and colleagues that we can work with.”
Looking forward, Michaud said the firms will need to get to know each other, understand the practices they have and what they can offer as a combined firm. But there are some areas in particular where they’re excited about growing.
“One example is we really do feel strongly that adding intellectual property attorneys in any or all of the three Lane Powell offices would be great for the combined firm because we have a lot of IP talent, but, as you can imagine, there’s a lot of tech startup companies in the Pacific Northwest,” Michaud said. “Our hope would be that we could create some boots on the ground intellectual property practice up there.”
He also noted that the M&A practices of each of the firms are very strong, and he hopes to grow those areas as well.
In Colorado, Barry said they’re always trying to grow their local and regional capabilities, but the focus is on natural growth.
“We need to continue to grow this because we see something special,” Barry said. “Now, in this announcement, I’ve received more phone calls about, ‘Hey, we see Ballard is growing, and see what you are trying to do as growth, what can we do to help you? Do you have more opportunity, are you looking to continue to grow locally?’ And my answer to the first question is yes, but we want to do it with the right people, and not just for the sake of doing it.”