(New York, NY, January 2, 2002) Reed Smith LLP, an international law firm with more than 700 attorneys and ranked among the global top 50, is merging with the New York City firm, Parker Duryee Rosoff & Haft.

The merger, effective January 1, 2002, adds all 26 Parker Duryee attorneys to the Reed Smith roster, increasing the number of lawyers in the firm’s New York City office to 61. Twelve Parker Duryee attorneys will be named Reed Smith partners.

“With a substantial presence in New York, London and Washington D.C., and with offices throughout Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Virginia, Reed Smith is well-poised to serve its domestic and international clients in the U.S., the U.K., and beyond,” said firm Managing Partner Gregory B. Jordan.

"The merger with Parker Duryee provides Reed Smith with a group of corporate, litigation, real estate, and trusts and estate lawyers who have forged deep ties in the New York community and have worked very successfully together," says Jonathan Young, Administrative Partner of Reed Smith's New York office.

Reed Smith’s Director of Strategic Planning and Partner, Michael B. Pollack, adds, "We have a great deal of respect for Parker Duryee's culture; for this reason we are folding its entire operation into ours, including partners, associates, counsel, paralegals and administrative staff."

Herbert F. Kozlov, a Parker Duryee partner who headed that firm’s Corporate Practice Group added, "Keeping Parker Duryee's team intact was as important to Reed Smith as it was to us. It's one of many indicators that the cultures of our organizations are already highly aligned. We know this is a positive and progressive move for both firms."Kozlov added, “Parker Duryee chose Reed Smith from a number of large firms expressing an interest in merging because of the outstanding quality of Reed Smith’s work in a wide variety of areas.

The merger is the fifth major expansion Reed Smith has undertaken since 1999, to enhance its global corporate and litigation capabilities, and solidify its New York presence.

In 2000, Reed Smith acquired 11 lawyers from the intellectual property boutique McAulay, Nissen, Goldberg & Kiel, a New York firm with strong ties to European and Asian clients. The firm also joined forces with London-based Warner Cranston and opened a Wilmington, Delaware, office to serve the firm’s financial and corporate clients.

In 1999, Reed Smith acquired northern Virginia's Hazel & Thomas, enhancing its practice in that high-growth, technology-rich corridor.

Opened in 1995, Reed Smith's New York office is one of the firm's fastest-growing locations, providing full-service legal representation in the areas of real estate, corporate finance, commercial litigation, labor and employment, intellectual property, and insurance, to international and domestic corporations.

Services provided by Reed Smith's newly enhanced New York office include:

• real estate, including complex financing, leasing, real estate investment trusts, sales and acquisitions;
• corporate and securities, including finance, venture capital, mergers and acquisitions, entity organization and governance, regulatory compliance, and partnership issues;
• commercial and complex litigation, including business torts, contract disputes, antitrust, corporate dissolution, bank fraud investigations, RICO and securities fraud defense;
• alternative dispute resolution, including commercial arbitration and mediation; and
• labor and employment, including management representation in connection with counseling, litigation, mediation and administrative hearings.

"To facilitate the transition, several Reed Smith lawyers will move into Parker Duryee’s current Fifth Avenue offices and several Parker Duryee lawyers will move into Reed Smith’s current Park Avenue offices until new offices at 599 Lexington Avenue (52nd Street) are ready later this year for the combined firm," said Pollack.