Stinson Morrison to merge with Leonard Street as law firm mergers heat up!

Stinson Morrison Hecker is merging with Leonard Street & Deinard to become the 75th largest law firm in the United States by headcount.

The merger, set to take place on Jan. 1, will create a 525-lawyer firm with offices in 14 cities, report the Kansas City Star, the Wall Street Journal Law Blog, the Kansas City Business Journal and the Minneapolis Star Tribune. The new firm will be called Stinson Leonard Street, and its headquarters will be in both Minneapolis and Kansas City.

According to Altman Weil, U.S. law firms are on pace for more than 70 mergers in 2013, which would be the highest number since 2008. “U.S. law firms continue to grow, primarily through targeted acquisitions,” Altman Weil principal Ward Bower told the Star Tribune. “Firms are picking up specialty practices, expanding in strong markets and adding offices in new cities.”

Mark Hinderks, managing partner of 325-lawyer Stinson Morrison, will be co-managing partner of Stinson Leonard Street with Lowell Stortz, managing partner of 200-lawyer Leonard Street.

Merger discussions began earlier this year, Hinderks told the Kansas City Business Journal. “We discovered that our business metrics and our cultures are nearly identical, and we have the same focuses on client service and we serve the same types of clients with the same approach to providing client value,” he said.

—LEGALWEEK