Holland & Hart to Merge With Nevada’s Hale Lane
Denver-based Holland & Hart will merge with Nevada’s 50-lawyer Hale Lane Peek Dennison and Howard to create a firm with more than 400 lawyers.
The smaller firm’s 22 partners will become full equity partners in the merged firm, the AmLaw Daily reports. The new firm will retain the Holland & Hart name.
Hale Lane managing partner Timothy Lukas told the publication that it also had merger offers from Lewis and Roca, Holland & Knight and several California firms, but Holland & Hart was a better fit.
Hale Lane focuses on residential real estate, renewable energy, and government affairs and lobbying. Lukas said his firm’s clients will benefit from Holland & Hart’s expertise in tax and ERISA work, intellectual property and litigation.
Billing rates were also a factor. Rates at some top California firms were two times that of Hale Lane rates, Lukas told AmLaw Daily. “When we started talking with Holland & Hart we found a similar quality of lawyer that wouldn’t put us at a billable disadvantage for our clients.”
Holland & Hart posted a press release on its website, and Lukas posted a letter to clients explaining the decision on the Hale Lane website.
“The management committee and partners of Hale Lane have met with our counterparts at Holland & Hart for months now,” the letter says. “One comment I’ve heard over and over is that, ‘they are just like us.’ From how we make decisions to our sense of humor, we found our new partners to be cut from the same cloth as us.”
