Squire Sanders and Patton Boggs have confirmed that they are to merge. The newly minted Squire Patton Boggs will be launched this weekend.

Patton Boggs is a Washington-based firm with a reputation both for its lobbying work and for having had a difficult few years of it. The 400-lawyer firm has seen revenues slide over the last five years, made 65 redundancies in March 2013, and has just had to pay $15m to settle a claim made by Chevron. It has been casting around for a merger for months, first with Texas-based Locke Lord, then with Dentons. But Squires has emerged victorious. The new firm will have 1,700 lawyers. Or thereabouts - Squires Chairman Jim Maiwurm ominously announced that "substantially everyone will be joining".

Some patterned bogs yesterday

It's the latest merger for Squires, which most notably acquired Hammonds in 2011. It gets to bulk up in Washington, and Patton Boggs gets a global footprint (including a London office). Profits per partner were pretty similar at the two firms ($800k for Squires, $735k for PB), but partners from Patton Boggs will be signing up to a merit-based remuneration system, so they'll have to work like Spanish donkeys if they want to carry on earning that sort of wedge.