Washington-based law firm Patton Boggs was reportedly close to completing its merger with Locke Lord, a law firm based out of Dallas, TX. According to a lawyer from Patton Boggs who told Reuters, the managing partner of Patton Boggs Edward Newberry had already circulated a memo to its partners saying the firm had engaged the services of legal consultants Zeughauser Group for the merger.

The lobbying and public policy law firm had also engaged the services of Wells Fargo, Deloitte and PricewaterhouseCoopers to provide advise regarding the proposed merger. The lawyer spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak on the matter publicly.

Newberry was not immediately available to respond to a request for comment.

The lawyer confirmed that the memo read that Patton Boggs was not yet committed to the merger with Locke Lord, The firm was still undertaking a 'due diligence' process where there will be an examination as to the pension and benefits, client conflicts as well as the risk and liability.

The representatives from Patton Boggs and Locke Lord did not immediately respond to sent requests for comment, This was also the same tact taken by representatives from Zeughauser Group, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte and Wells Fargo Bank.

Last October 27, Reuters had reported that Patton Boggs was in talks to merge with a larger US law firm. Patton Boggs has nearly 500 lawyers as well as public policy advisers. Two former partners at Patton Boggs told Reuters that the possible merger partner would be Locke Lord, which has over 650 lawyers and consultants.

Patton Boggs is well known for its clout on Capitol Hill and was counsel for a number of large companies and institutions, namely AT&T, Goldman Sachs and Amazon.com Inc. The firm provides lobbying services to these major firms as confirmed by OpenSecrets.org, an online lobbying website and forum.