Mapped: What Would the McDermott and Schulte Merger Look Like?

Aidan Scanlon • 9 May 2025

Yesterday, McDermott Will & Emery and Schulte Roth & Zabel announced their plans to merge. The combination would create a law firm of around 1,600 attorneys and $2.8 billion of revenue. The merged firm would rank in the top 20 of the AM Law 100.


If approved, the merger would unite McDermott's broad expertise in healthcare, dispute resolution, and corporate law with Schulte's deep focus on hedge funds, private capital, and financial regulation. This latest announcement follows in the footsteps of other recent combinations like Herbert Smith Freehills & Kramer Levin and Troutman Pepper & Locke Lord.


Using publicly-available data tracked by Pirical Legal Professionals (PLP), we've taken a look at which locations & practices would grow under the merger.

By Merging With Schulte, McDermott Will Bolster Their Presence in New York City and London

McDermott Will & Emery office locations
McDermott Will & Emery office locations post-merger with Schulte

Shared Depth Across Corporate, Litigation and Finance Practices Makes the Merger a Natural Fit

Practice area depth comparison - Herbert Smith Freehills and Kramer Levin

Both Firms Can Expect to Lose a Small Number of Partners Between Now and the Completion of the Merger

Horizontal bar chart showing percentage losses between merger announcement and completion for various companies.

Written using data from Pirical Legal Professionals (PLP)

Unlock unparalleled coverage of the legal market


Global attorney database built with the most comprehensive sources of data on the market. Designed for law firm lateral hiring teams, legal headhunters and strategy planners, our data tracks over 660,000 profiles across 130+ countries. PLP enables firms to source talent quicker, leverage their own network for referral opportunities, map out competitors’ org structures, research new markets and much more.

Try PLP for 1 hour

Subscribe to the latest data insights & blog updates



Fresh, original content for Law Firms and Legal Recruiters interested in data, diversity & inclusion, legal market insights, recruitment, and legal practice management.

Get updates via email
Bar chart showing percentage headcount change in PE practices from Jan 2021 to Jan 2022 across eight global law firms.

Private Equity Ranking: Who's Building, Who's Bleeding, and Why BigLaw May Be PE's Next Acquisition Target

by Craig Savitzky • 14 April 2026
Pirical data tracking 50,000+ lawyers across PE and capital markets practices reveals a three-year talent reshaping more dramatic than the numbers indicate.
A table listing the top 14 Law Firms in the AM Law 101-200 by growth in Partner headcount

Which AM Law 101-200 Firms Have The Strongest Organic Growth?

by Emily Turner • 9 April 2026
See Pirical's Ranking of Which AM Law 101-200 Law Firms Have Seen the Most Significant Growth in the Past Year
A line graph titled

Secrets of Associate Productivity 2: Do Higher Salaries Increase Productivity? What’s the Right Combination of ‘Carrot’ and ‘Stick’?

8 April 2026
Pirical has been working with customers to diagnose their current state of productivity and to test ideas about what really drives productivity across the market.

Which AM Law 100 Firms Have The Best Lateral Partner Retention?

by Lakshana Susinthiran • 7 April 2026
Lateral Partner retention is a vital metric for law firms. "Each year, law firms invest countless hours, money, and resources in their lateral hiring efforts" , so the success rate of each lateral hire has significant implications to any firm. Based on input from a number of firms, a key window for a lateral Partner hire is the first 3 years from joining. Within that timeframe, most firms will have a sense of whether the hire is going to be a success, or not! Using publicly-available data tracked by Pirical , we've analyzed how many of the lateral Partner hires made by AM Law 100 firms between 2020-2022 exited the firm within 3 years of joining.
Chart of top 50 lateral hiring over time, increasing trend from Jan 2023 to Jan 2026. Green bars.

Which AM Law 101-150 Firms Hire The Most Partners From The Top 50?

by Emily Turner • 31 March 2026
The Volume of Lateral Moves From AM Law 1-50 to 101-150 Firms has Increased by +45% Over the Last 3 Years.
Table showing a list of names with corresponding numbers in two columns labeled

The $100 Billion Question: Which BigLaw Firms Already Own the Venezuela Gold Rush?

by Craig Savitzky • 10 March 2026
Which law firms had already positioned themselves years earlier to capture what may become the largest energy legal market since post-invasion Iraq?