Making Your Merger a Success

I reviewed my experience in law firm mergers and reflected on what worked and what did not. What practices and policies were beneficial to the success of a merger, and what were merely “window dressing” or harmful to the success of the merger. This article is a compendium of my 30 years' experience in law firm consulting and specifically law firm mergers.

A law firm should effect a merger or acquisition to achieve a specific, identified and defined benefit. Typically, these benefits include improved client service, improved economies of scale, entrance into a new market or practice, or personal benefits to the partners and associates. Any law firm wishing to merge in the current shifting economic and professional environment must deal with four crucial ' and quite diverse ' sets of issues, grouped under the following topics:

• Practice integration issues;
• Performance and profitability;
• Administration; and
• Culture.

Each set of issues has its own unique problems and solutions; and many mergers address one, two or even three sets of issues. But if your law firm merger is to truly succeed, you must effectively deal with all four sets.