Clyde & Co has made good on its promise to open in Miami by acquiring local litigation boutique Thornton Davis Fein.
The news comes a month after The Lawyer first revealed that Clydes was circling Miami firms in a bid to open an office in the city.
The entire team from Thornton Davis Fein will join Clydes. The team includes five partners and another 35 lawyers and staff.
The Miami hires bring the number of Clydes fee-earners in the US to 160, spread across six offices.
Thornton Davis Fein has a reputation for handling complex litigation and trials for corporations and insurers. It has particular strength in product liability and construction, as well as in core Clydes sectors of aviation, insurance and marine.
Clydes is also relocating partner Ricardo Lewandowski from London to launch a Latin American liaison service in Miami.
In a statement Thornton Davis Fein senior partner Barry Davis said: “The landscape of law in the US is changing. Law firms are consolidating in order to provide greater national and international bench strength to their clients. With our shared approach to sectors and its commitment to building a sizeable US presence, joining Clyde & Co has been a very natural decision. We now have huge potential to further expand in Florida and to play a part in Clyde & Co’s US growth story.”
Mike Knoerzer, a member of Clydes’ US management board, added that the firm was seeking to be the “pre-eminent insurance coverage law firm for global insurance carriers and the London Market and to build a network of trial and defense capability” across the US.
The merger is expected to complete by 1 July.
Clydes launched in New York and Los Angeles in 2006 after hiring four partners from US firm Condon & Forsyth. Since then Clydes’ US offering has grown to around 150 lawyers across its five offices in Atlanta, Los Angeles, New Jersey, New York and San Francisco.