Seyfarth Shaw and D'Ancona & Pflaum Announce Merger

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 12, 2003
SEYFARTH SHAW AND D’ANCONA & PFLAUM ANNOUNCE MERGER

D’Ancona Lawyers Join Seyfarth in One of 2003’s Biggest Chicago Law Firm Mergers

Chicago, September 12, 2003—Seyfarth Shaw LLP, a leading national full-service law firm, and D’Ancona & Pflaum LLC, a 100-year-old Chicago law firm, today announced the merger of the two firms effective October 1, 2003. As one of the largest mergers of two Chicago-based law firms in recent years, the addition of D’Ancona’s 60 attorneys to Seyfarth Shaw creates a Chicago office with 270 attorneys, and increases the firm’s size nationally to approximately 600 attorneys.

The merger was announced jointly by J. Stephen Poor, Managing Partner of Seyfarth Shaw, and Joel D. Rubin, Chairman of D’Ancona & Pflaum. The combined firm will operate under the Seyfarth Shaw name, and the D’Ancona attorneys will relocate from 111 E. Wacker Drive to Seyfarth Shaw’s offices at 55 E. Monroe.

The addition of the D’Ancona attorneys greatly enhances Seyfarth Shaw’s local and national strength in a range of practice areas, including corporate, securities, mutual funds, pension fund investments, venture capital, litigation, real estate and estate planning. D’Ancona’s national and international client base will benefit from access to the collective expertise and geographic presence of Seyfarth Shaw’s national platform.

“We are extremely pleased to welcome these highly skilled attorneys, who not only add considerable depth to our Chicago office but also expand our national capabilities in several key practice areas,” Poor said. “Given the fact that these attorneys had the option to join other national law firms, we feel fortunate that they viewed our firm as providing the best opportunity for continued growth.”

“The fact that our attorneys enthusiastically elected to join Seyfarth Shaw speaks volumes about the strength of both firms and the tremendous synergy that is created by joining forces,” Rubin said. “We are excited to bring an expanded menu of legal capabilities to Seyfarth Shaw’s Chicago and national operations.”

Continuing expansion
For Seyfarth Shaw, the merger with D’Ancona is the largest of several significant growth moves in the past few years. Mergers and additions of practice groups and individual laterals from local and regional firms have helped Seyfarth dramatically increase its presence and capability in cities such as Atlanta, Boston, Los Angeles and New York, in step with the firm’s growth and diversification plan. The merger with D’Ancona accelerates that growth and places the firm among the largest law firms in Chicago.

For D’Ancona & Pflaum, the merger provides an important national platform for enhancing client service and adds significant depth and breadth in areas such as labor and employment, employee benefits, patent and intellectual property, international tax, real estate investment trusts, venture capital and construction litigation. Seyfarth’s nine offices nationwide and its office in Brussels, Belgium, work together seamlessly to deliver comprehensive legal services to national and international clients. By joining this nationally integrated team, the D’Ancona attorneys add an important dimension to the services they offer.

About Seyfarth Shaw
Founded in 1945, Seyfarth Shaw will now have approximately 600 attorneys located in nine offices throughout the United States – including Chicago, New York, Boston, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Sacramento -- as well as Brussels, Belgium. True to its roots, Seyfarth Shaw has one of the largest labor and employment practices in the nation, and also provides a broad range of legal services in the areas of business law, real estate, contracts, employee benefits, environmental, safety and health, and litigation. American Lawyer recently ranked Seyfarth Shaw as the most prestigious labor and employment law firm in the nation.

Today, the firm’s practice reflects virtually every industry and segment of the country’s business and social fabric. Clients include over 200 of the Fortune 500 companies, financial institutions, newspapers and other media, hotels, health care organizations, airlines and railroads. The firm also represents a number of federal, state, and local governmental and educational entities.

About D’Ancona & Pflaum
With a century of service in virtually all aspects of commercial law, D’Ancona & Pflaum LLC is renowned for providing sophisticated legal services to clients in the U.S. and abroad. The firm’s 60 attorneys counsel companies of all sizes, from start-up enterprises to multinational corporations to state and local governmental entities.

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