Minneapolis-based Moss & Barnett, a law firm founded in 1892, will merge into the international law firm of Cozen O’Connor, which is headquartered in Philadelphia.

The two law firms announced Monday that the combination will take effect on Jan. 1, and it comports with Cozen O’Connor’s desire to beef up its presence in the Midwest.

Cozen O’Connor will gain more than 50 attorneys, who now work for Moss & Barnett.

Cozen O’Connor was established in 1970. The American Lawyer, an industry publication, annually collects data from the nation’s largest law firms. For the AmLaw list released in 2025, Cozen O’Connor ranked 77th based on gross revenue, which was $708 million. The data used in the ranking was for fiscal 2024, when Cozen’s net operating income was $230.7 million and its profits per lawyer were listed at $295,000. The firm’s compensation average for all partners was $764,000.

“Moss & Barnett’s century-long history of excellence and its deep community ties in a corporate hub like Minneapolis make it a perfect fit for Cozen O’Connor’s strategic vision for growth. This combination advances our commitment to deepen our presence across the Midwest, a strategically important region for the firm and our clients,” Michael Heller, Cozen O’Connor’s chairman and CEO, said in a prepared statement.

“We explored the possibility of a merger a decade ago, but the timing wasn’t right,” Heller said. “When we resumed these discussions recently, we were immediately reminded of our many shared cultural and practice synergies that have contributed to each firm’s success.”

Key practice areas that Moss & Barnett bring to the merger are real estate, corporate, regulatory/government, intellectual property, energy and public utilities, litigation, real estate finance, trusts and estates, and family law.

Wave of Minneapolis law firm mergers

In 2020, Steve Ryan, a partner in the Taft law firm, said that a “great realignment” was sweeping the nation as regional law firms combined with each other and small firms merged into national firms.

In a Twin Cities Business cover story, Ryan, former president and managing partner of Minneapolis-based Briggs & Morgan, shared details on how Briggs went about finding a compatible merger partner.

“We were beginning to see challenges in our ability to deliver for our clients the depth and breadth of product that they were demanding,” Ryan said back in 2020. Attorneys at Briggs approved a merger with Taft, and the two firms—both founded in the 1880s—became one large firm on Jan. 1, 2020.

Ryan’s words about “depth” and “breadth” uttered in 2020 were repeated Monday in the news release from Cozen O’Connor. “The merger immediately and substantially enhances the firm’s depth and breadth of services in the Midwest, particularly across its regulatory, transactional, and financial practice areas,” the news release said. “Moreover, it increases the firm-wide roster of its nationally regarded real estate practice to over 100 attorneys.”

Shortly before the Covid-19 pandemic hit in early 2020, there also were two other major mergers that affected Minneapolis-based attorneys.

Gray Plant Mooty, the oldest continuous law firm in Minneapolis, merged with a firm whose biggest market was Kansas City. The combined firm took the name Lathrop GPM.

Faegre Baker Daniels, which operated one of the largest law offices in Minnesota, merged with Drinker Biddle & Reath on Feb. 1, 2020. Faegre Drinker became the name for the combined firm.

In 2018, Lindquist & Vennum, another well-regarded Minneapolis law firm, opted to join a national firm. Its attorneys approved a merger with Ballard Spahr.

In Cozen O’Connor’s case, it already has some attorneys working out of a Minneapolis office, but it was a much smaller number than the attorneys who work for Moss & Barnett. When the two groups are combined, there will be more than 70 attorneys working in a joint Minneapolis office.

After the merger is completed, the Cozen O’Connor attorneys will move from their office at 33 South Sixth Street in downtown Minneapolis to Moss & Barnett’s current location at 150 South Fifth Street. Cozen O’Connor has 33 locations, and the Minneapolis office will become the firm’s fourth-largest office, behind Philadelphia, New York City, and Washington, D.C. The law firm plans to look for a new office space in Minneapolis to accommodate the combined roster of lawyers on a longer-term basis.

“We’re both multidisciplinary, client-centered law firms that deliver seamless, team-based, custom counsel,” Brian Grogan, Moss & Barnett’s president and CEO, said in a news release. “Both firms are regarded as innovators, and both are well-known for delivering outstanding value to our clients. Integrating our local expertise with Cozen O’Connor’s national resources and full suite of legal services will provide Minneapolis’ dynamic business community with a robust team capable of handling their most sophisticated legal matters.”