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Challenges and Adjustments in a Merger

By Robert W. Denney
September 28, 2011

Author's Note: This article first appeared in this publication in March, 2005. Although the legal profession has been undergoing considerable change since then, the issues that arise after firms merge are still the same as they were over seven years ago. Therefore, we thought a review was in order.

There is a drama that is acted out every day on the stages of hundreds of law firms throughout the world. Firm A, which may have been a local, regional or even national firm, has recently merged into (read “acquired by”) Firm B, a larger national or international firm, and the partners from Firm A are adjusting to being part of such a huge firm.

Some of these partners may compare this situation with their first semester at a college that was many times the size of the high school from which they had recently graduated. Others may compare it with the first few months of marriage (at least the first marriage) after the honeymoon was over. Both of those situations require learning and adjustment. However, for most partners, nothing compares with the experience of having their firm of 50 or 100 or 200 lawyers merge into a firm of 800 or 1000 or 1,500 lawyers. For some it is exciting and energizing. For most, however, it is unsettling and can sometimes be traumatic.

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