It's official: The planned May 1 wedding of Washington, D.C.-based Hogan & Hartson and London-based Lovells has created a new megafirm.

The now 2,500-lawyer Hogan Lovells is a merger of equals with the former heads of the two firms serving as co-chief executive officers in charge of the new venture, reports the Washington Post. Although the Hogan name now comes first, it is enclosed in the iconic lime-green box that formerly belonged to Lovells.

"This merger will enable us to make a quantum leap that we never could have achieved by bringing in partners from smaller firms," co-CEO Warren Gorrell, who formerly headed the Hogan firm, tells the newspaper. With nearly $2 billion in annual revenue, the melded firm is expected to be among the largest in the world.

"We have a series of investment plans designed to continue the growth and development of the firm, with a particular focus on building our capabilities in the finance area in New York and our corporate strength in London and New York," Gorrell and his Lovells counterpart, co-CEO David Harris, says in a Hogan Lovells press release.

"At the same time," they continue, "we are committed to the continued development of our practice in Asia and the Middle East, which we consider to be areas for additional investment and reflect the changing balance of the world's economy. In Europe we are concentrating on selectively reinforcing the range of services we provide from our offices. There are also some potential opportunities in emerging markets which are also being explored."

Although the merged firms now apparently plan to expand in at least some of their 40 offices around the globe, they have lost some lawyers following the merger announcement.

The latest departure to be announced is a six-lawyer group in Washington, D.C., which is opening a new office there for Shipman & Goodwin with an insurance focus.

That follows news of lawyer losses in Berlin; Chicago; Geneva; and Warsaw, Poland.

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