Bryan Hughes, CEO of London-based Eversheds, confirmed this week that his 1,200-lawyer outfit has officially begun its search for a U.S. merger partner.

In a telephone interview Monday, Hughes tells The Am Law Daily that 90 percent of partners at his firm voted to pursue a merger at its June partner conference in Rome. Hughes notes that Eversheds will spend 2015 checking out potential partners with an eye toward making the match sometime in 2016.