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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowIt’s shaping up to be another record year for law firm mergers and acquisitions.
There were 28 law firm combinations announced the U.S. in the second quarter of 2016, according to Altman Weil MergerLine, which tracks law firm mergers and acquisitions. So far this year, 48 deals have been announced, matching the record pace of 2015 which ended with 91 law firm combinations.
No Indiana firms were part of any merger activity.
The majority of the deals involved small firms – those acquired tended to have fewer than 25 attorneys and nearly half of the firms that did the acquiring had 50 or fewer lawyers.
“Small firms are increasingly vulnerable in the current market,” says Altman Weil principal Eric Seeger. “There’s more competition for less work, and small firms need a strategy to avoid being squeezed out. That may mean building a bigger platform or being acquired by a firm that already has a broader foundation.”
Since 2007, the number of total law firm mergers and acquisitions has held steady around 60, with 2010 seeing only 39 combinations. But beginning in 2013, combinations exploded to 88, followed by 82 combinations in 2014.
More information on the mergers can be found at www.altmanweil.com/MergerLine.
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