On Tuesday, American Polsinelli law firm announced that it had established an office in Philadelphia, bringing with it a minimum of twenty partners from rival law firm, Holland & Knight.

Since June, Polsinelli, a company based in Kansas City, Missouri, has opened three offices. This one is the third. It established offices in Park City, Utah, and Fort Worth, Texas, last month. The names of the Holland & Knight attorneys joining the firm were not disclosed by Polsinelli. It claimed that the new hiring would enhance company policies regarding employee stock ownership plans and executive compensation, among other things.

In response to inquiries over the departures, Holland & Knight stated in a statement that it is dedicated to Philadelphia and intends to expand its office there. According to its website, the 2,200-lawyer business has 73 attorneys based in Philadelphia. As one of the biggest full-service U.S.-only organizations, Philadelphia was a missing component, according to a statement from Chase Simmons, chairman and CEO of Polsinelli. Just over 1,000 lawyers work for the business, according to a spokesman.

This year has seen further hirings by large law firms. About fifty attorneys joined Fennemore Craig in April after leaving the Denver-based business company Moye White. Later that month, Baker McKenzie, which recruited 17 of Munger, Tolles & Olson's transactional attorneys in Los Angeles, took around 10% of the partnership from the firm.

According to data released earlier this month by consultancy Fairfax Associates, the number of law firm mergers conducted in the U.S. legal business has increased this year indicating a legal industry shift. 29 law firm mergers were completed in the first half of 2024, according to Fairfax, compared to 28 in 2023 and 25 in 2021 and 2022.