ST. PAUL, MN — — Merrill Corporation (www.merrillcorp.com), a global diversified communications and document services provider, announced today that its Document Management Services (DMS) business, a leading provider of document management services to the legal industry, has been awarded a five-year contract by Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, L.L.P., a major international law firm. The agreement allows DMS to provide document management and various office support services for nine of Akin Gump's U.S. offices. According to the terms of the agreement, Merrill will provide the necessary technologically-advanced equipment and professionally-trained personnel to manage analog and digital document flows into and out of Akin Gump's offices in Austin, Texas; Dallas; Houston; Los Angeles; New York; Northern Virginia; Philadelphia; San Antonio, Texas; and Washington, D.C. Akin Gump employs 1,050 lawyers in the United States and overseas, and represents regional, national and international clients in a wide range of legal matters, including corporate and securities; environment, land use and project development; entertainment; financial restructuring; health; intellectual property; labor and employment; litigation; public law and policy; and technology. With the Akin Gump contract, Merrill has added 23 new client sites this year, through which it provides document management services on an outsourced basis. "We were impressed by Merrill's understanding of the culture of law firms, its willingness to be flexible in providing the outsourced services we require, and its ability to deliver technology-driven solutions on a cost-efficient basis," said Jim Leary, executive director of Akin Gump. "In the end, we selected Merrill for this important responsibility because it demonstrated the ability to blend both customer support and a wide range of services to create an innovative offering, which ultimately benefits our clients."