So Who Owns WinstonHeller.com ... And Why?

Last Friday, wondering about continuing rumors of a Heller Ehrman merger with Chicago’s Winston & Strawn, we decided to check whether anyone had registered any interesting new domain names like, saaaay, www.hellerwinston.com or www.winstonheller.com.

Turns out that only the day before, both were registered to Domains by Proxy, a company which allows privacy-seeking customers to register sites using the company’s contact information. A commenter on Above the Law noted the same discovery Saturday, so when we got to work on Monday, we made some calls. A spokesman for Heller said the firm was not involved.

“We did not authorize any Web company or outside third party to purchase any particular domain or register any Web site,” he said.

Not them? Isn’t cyber-squatting so 1998?

The spokesman would not confirm whether Heller is in talks with Winston, but he did say firms are always talking about mergers. While Heller has been a rumored merger partner for at least five firms, we checked out likely combinations for each (plus four more ideas tossed up at ATL) and found only one other — morganheller.com, for a possible link to Morgan, Lewis & Bockius — was taken. It’s registered to an automotive marketing services company in Seattle. The company assures us it’s not in merger talks with Heller Ehrman.

So someone’s betting on Winston & Strawn. That merger might make sense — both firms have uncommon insurance policyholders practices that might lead to conflicts in merging with other firms. So which name would win out, we wondered. Winston Heller, said Alan Miles of legal search firm Alan Miles & Associates in Santa Monica.

“Winston & Strawn seems to be in a position of strength, and I would think would be the surviving firm, name-wise, of the two entities, or at least have their name first,” Miles said.

Fun with the Internet: Try searching for some likely firm combinations (and post your discoveries, or Heller comments, below). Dibs on combinations with “Orrick” in them.

— Niraj Chokshi