Shearman & Sterling called off merger talks with Hogan Lovells as Shearman lost a 20-lawyer and advisor team for a new office Morgan, Lewis & Bockius is opening in Munich.
“After careful consideration, we have mutually agreed that a combination at this time is not in the best interest of either firm,” Shearman said in a statement. “We have been deeply impressed with each other’s business, practices and people and wish each other continued success.”
Florian Harder, the head of Shearman & Sterling’s German offices, will be managing partner of the new Munich office, Morgan Lewis’s second in the country.
Shearman partners Florian Ziegler and Jann Jetter, who is the leader of Shearman’s tax advisory practice, are among the 20 Shearman lawyers and advisors who will staff the new office, Morgan & Lewis said in a statement.
The new office aligns the firm with clients, and several companies have a Munich presence, including Amazon.com Inc., Alphabet Inc.'s Google, Siemens AG, Microsoft Corp. and BMW AG.
“Germany is one of the most significant legal markets in Europe, and its importance is only growing,” Morgan Lewis firm chair Jami McKeon in a statement.
Stateside, Morgan Lewis recently added former Microsoft compliance chief David Howard as a partner in its new Seattle office.
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