Maurice Locke was a math teacher who, in 1891, decided to open his own law firm in Dallas. Today, that firm goes by the name Locke Liddell & Sapp, which has five offices across the country, including its HQ on Ross Avenue and some fancy digs on 9th Street in Washington, D.C. Alas, today the firm gets a new name: Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell LLP. And that, my Friends, is a mouthful.
The Dallas firm is merging with a Chicago firm formerly known as Lord Bissell & Brook LLP, and the release this afternoon says the new firm will have "approximately 700 attorneys with offices in Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, London, Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York, Sacramento and Washington, D.C." After the merger goes into effect on October 2, the firm will also have gross revenues of, oh, $400 million annually, making it one of the top 100 firms in the country if one's counting cash, and who's counting? --Robert Wilonsky