Smith Moore Leatherwood ties knot with Fox Rothschild

The law firm Smith Moore Leatherwood has announced that it will merge with the national law firm Fox Rothschild effective Nov. 1.

Smith Moore has six offices, including one in Greenville, which will bear the Fox Rothschild name after the merger. Fox Rothschild has 27 offices and over 900 attorneys nationwide, but this is the firm’s first foray into the Southeast.

The move is part of a growing trend of regional law firms partnering up with larger national firms. Matt Leerberg, partner in charge of the firm’s Raleigh office said he thought Smith Moore Leatherwood was ahead of that trend.

“There are not a lot of other law firms in our footprint where there is local talent providing excellent homegrown service, but with the strength and depth of a national law firm behind them,” Leerberg said. “The reason why we see that as a coming trend is that it’s all client-driven. Clients are asking us to do this, they’re begging us to be able to serve their needs outside of our current geographic footprint and practice areas. When clients ask over and over to give them deeper and broader services, we listen, and that’s why we decided to make this move.”

Leerberg said that Smith Moore chose Fox Rothschild as a partner because of the firm’s efficiency, and that the merger would enable its attorneys to spend more time focusing on work for clients.

Smith Moore currently has 130 attorneys and its core practice areas include litigation, labor and employment, tax, trusts and estates, real estate, corporate law, health law and intellectual property. It also has a significant sports law practice that the firm said will supplement Fox Rothschild’s existing entertainment law practice.

The merger also reflects the growth of the Carolinas as a legal market, and national firms’ keen interest in reaching that market. Fox Rothschild has opened, or added through mergers, several new offices in the last three years, but the firm said the Smith Moore merger was its largest combination to date.

“This part of the country was a missing puzzle piece for Fox, and they had been looking for a long time for just the right way to come into the market,” said Julie Theall Earp, chair of the firm’s management committee.

Earp said that “joining them is like joining a larger version of ourselves, and that’s exciting.”

Leerberg described the firm as being “in full-steam-ahead growth mode” and said that it was looking to grow the offices that currently bear the Smith Moore Leatherwood name.

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