Press Release
Womble Carlyle Votes To Merge With Charleston’s Buist Moore Smythe McGee
April 14, 2011
WINSTON SALEM, N.C.—Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, PLLC announced that its lawyers have voted to merge with the 44-lawyer Charleston, S.C., law firm Buist Moore Smythe McGee, P.A., creating the largest law firm in both North and South Carolina.
The addition of Buist Moore Smythe McGee’s attorneys will expand Womble Carlyle to a 550-attorney firm. The merger will be effective April 30th.
“We are in the business of helping our clients succeed,” said Keith Vaughan, Chairman of Womble Carlyle’s Firm Management Committee. “When our clients succeed, we succeed. The combining of Buist Moore Smythe McGee and Womble Carlyle will provide Womble Carlyle clients access to a wider network of strategically important relationships. Charleston has emerged as a high-growth area within the pro-business state of South Carolina. Our clients will benefit greatly from the key relationships and access within Charleston’s market that Buist Moore’s experienced, highly regarded lawyers bring.”
The merger with Buist Moore Smythe McGee gives Womble Carlyle attorneys and clients a list of varied benefits, including access to the specialty experience in Buist Moore Smythe McGee’s Admiralty and Maritime practice area, a strong position to serve the currently underway expansion of the Panama Canal, and additional critical mass in South Carolina. Specifically, with the addition of a Charleston office, Womble Carlyle’s Greenville, S.C., office is poised to expand its in-state geographic network and footprint in which it can directly assist clients.
“Buist Moore Smythe McGee has been a bedrock business law firm within the Charleston market for years, and now the merger with Womble Carlyle gives our talented attorneys a much broader platform to serve our clients,” said Henry Smythe, Buist Moore Smythe McGee Managing Partner. ”The existing synergies between our core practice areas and those of Womble Carlyle provide opportunities to expand client relationships within the Southeast region and beyond. Womble Carlyle currently has offices from Atlanta to Delaware and is a prominent law firm within that region. The opportunities for Buist Moore Smythe McGee attorneys to serve clients regionally, nationally and globally will increase significantly.”
Current Buist Moore Smythe McGee attorneys will continue to practice from their Charleston location at 5 Exchange Street once the merger goes into effect.
http://www.wcsr.com/
Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, PLLC is one of the largest and most technologically advanced business law firms in the mid-Atlantic and Southeast. The firm's roots run more than a century deep in North Carolina and its growth mirrors the evolving economy of the State and the region. Established in Winston-Salem in 1876, the firm now comprises more than 530 lawyers in eleven offices, including Winston-Salem, Charlotte, Greensboro, Research Triangle Park and Raleigh, NC; and Atlanta; Greenville, SC; Tysons Corner, VA; Washington, DC; Baltimore, MD; and, Wilmington, DE.
“Buist Moore Smythe McGee has been a bedrock business law firm within the Charleston market for years, and now the merger with Womble Carlyle gives our talented attorneys a much broader platform to serve our clients,” said Henry Smythe, Buist Moore Smythe McGee Managing Partner. ”The existing synergies between our core practice areas and those of Womble Carlyle provide opportunities to expand client relationships within the Southeast region and beyond. Womble Carlyle currently has offices from Atlanta to Delaware and is a prominent law firm within that region. The opportunities for Buist Moore Smythe McGee attorneys to serve clients regionally, nationally and globally will increase significantly.”
Current Buist Moore Smythe McGee attorneys will continue to practice from their Charleston location at 5 Exchange Street once the merger goes into effect.
Charleston has emerged as a high-growth area within the Southeast with the pending servicing of Southwest Airlines from its airport, the arrival of Boeing’s manufacturing hub, and an expansion of Panama Canal that will double its capacity. Womble Carlyle clients who import/export or have other transnational aspirations will have access to the multinational activity that results from Charleston’s enhanced standing as a critical transportation hub.
Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, PLLC Background:http://www.wcsr.com/
Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, PLLC is one of the largest and most technologically advanced business law firms in the mid-Atlantic and Southeast. The firm's roots run more than a century deep in North Carolina and its growth mirrors the evolving economy of the State and the region. Established in Winston-Salem in 1876, the firm now comprises more than 530 lawyers in eleven offices, including Winston-Salem, Charlotte, Greensboro, Research Triangle Park and Raleigh, NC; and Atlanta; Greenville, SC; Tysons Corner, VA; Washington, DC; Baltimore, MD; and, Wilmington, DE.
Buist Moore Smythe McGee, PA Background:
Buist Moore Smythe McGee is located in Charleston, SC. The 44 attorneys of Buist Moore Smythe McGee P.A. are known for their advocacy on behalf of corporations, partnerships, limited partnerships, limited liability companies and other business associations in all aspects of commercial activity.
Eight of the Firm's attorneys are included in Chambers USA: America's Leading Business Lawyers Directory. Twenty-one Buist Moore Smythe McGee lawyers have been selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America® 2010. Buist Moore Smythe McGee has been named among the “Best Places to Work in South Carolina” for three consecutive years.