American Lawyer in Philly deal
Acquires Legal Communications for $30 mil
The deal delivers the Legal Intelligencer, Philadelphia's leading daily legal notice newspaper, and Pennsylvania Law Weekly, a statewide legal sheet, to American Lawyer Media, itself an affiliate of US Equity Partners, the merchant banking arm of New York investment firm Wasserstein, Perella & Co.
Legal Communications' Philadelphia roots date to 1843, when the Legal Intelligencer emerged as the country's first daily legal newspaper. In 1989, the company was obtained in New York bankruptcy court by Meridian Venture Partners, an investment fund specializing in underperforming assets.
Representing Legal Communications in its sale to American Lawyer was Veronis, Suhler & Associates, the New York investment bank specializing in media. A year ago Veronis Suhler represented Time Warner in its divestiture of American Lawyer Media to Wasserstein Perella. VS&A also represented the National Law Publishing Co., one of the country's largest publishers of legal newspapers, in its 1995 sale to Boston Ventures Limited Partnerships. Wasserstein Perella has since acquired Boston Ventures' legal-publishing assets and merged them into the company that is now acquiring Legal Communications.
