McGonigle keeps its local office at 4870 Sadler Road in Innsbrook, where the Davis Wright Tremaine brand will soon be introduced. (BizSense file photo)

A niche law firm founded 12 years ago by a group of LeClairRyan attorneys has a merger in the works that will soon bring a new national law brand to Richmond.

McGonigle, a 44-attorney firm with an office in Innsbrook, is in the process of merging into Davis Wright Tremaine, which has around 550 lawyers nationwide.

McGonigle, originally known as Murphy & McGonigle, has had an office in the Richmond area since it was founded in 2010 by a group of LeClairRyan attorneys with a focus on representing clients in the financial services industry. It has since grown its lawyer ranks from 15 to 44, spread across offices in New York, Washington, DC, San Francisco and Chicago.

Texans hoping that the Lone Star State eventually breaks away from the rest of the nation to form a new country are likely to be disappointed when considering what the Supreme Court once said about their options for secession.

A case following the Civil War made it clear that the state’s seceding from the United States is an unlikely and untenable scenario. In 1868’s Texas v. White decision, the Court said leaving the Union can happen only through one of two ways: “revolution” or “consent of the States.”

“When, therefore, Texas became one of the United States, she entered into an indissoluble relation…. The union between Texas and the other States was as complete, as perpetual, and as indissoluble as the union between the original States. There was no place for reconsideration, or revocation, except through revolution, or through consent of the States,” the Court’s ruling read.

At its convention