Theodore Goddard - The 1990s, 2000s and The Merger

The 1990s, 2000s and The Merger

During the expansion of the practice throughout the 1990s, the firm at times experimented with international associate offices in Warsaw, Brussels and Paris amongst others. For a short time, there was also a small office run out of St. Albans.

Theodore Goddard continued to retain a strong media and entertainment law practice alongside a private client capability (including private tax work for members of The Rolling Stones, David Bowie and others, and defamation lawyers) at a time when many City law firms were divesting themselves of such business areas and concentrating on pure corporate matters. This diversity occasionally gave rise to high-profile cases involving celebrities including the firm's instruction in relation to the Hello! magazine dispute over photographs of Catherine Zeta-Jones's wedding to Michael Douglas and its appointment by Michael Jackson to advise on the controversial Living with Michael Jackson documentary.

Toward the end of the 1990s and the early part of the 21st century, the firm was linked to a succession of potential merger targets including a rejected offer from Eversheds in 1993 and a proposed tri-partite amalgamation in 1998 with Richards Butler and Denton Hall. However, following a third failed merger attempt in 2001, this time with Salans Hertzfeld & Heilbronn, the firm's credibility as a viable partnership was beginning to be called into question in both the legal press and the wider profession.

Consequently, in early 2003 following an approach by North of England firm Addleshaw Booth & Co, the fourth proposed merger was approved with very little resistance from the partnership. Five years on, the merger was described as "the most successful law firm merger since 2000". As of 2010 the merged firm of Addleshaw Goddard continued to operate out of offices in Leeds, Manchester and London.