Ropes and Gray has announced it will acquire intellectual property pioneer Fish and Neave.  The combined firm will have 740 lawyers.  FN will become known as the Fish and Neave Intellectual Property Group of Ropes and Gray, and will probably therefore get to keep using the Wright Brothers plane as part of its logo.

If you are interested that your legal fees for your trademark litigation, prosecution and counseling work not go to pay for law firm merger consultants, early retirement plans and moving vans, please consider our firm.

UPDATE: This quote from the NY Lawyer on the merger:

Aside from their greater access to general counsel and other high-ranking in-house lawyers, general practice firms usually have higher profits, enabling them to more handsomely compensate star IP partners.