Lisa Smith is quoted: “There may be some firms that are able to keep it and feel like it’s critical to their culture,” she said.

Lisa Smith is quoted “You can’t teach leadership skills over a single lunch hour,” Smith says. “A lunch-and-learn is not going to move the needle. It needs to be more programmatic and more intensive.”

Lisa Smith is quoted “Most firms will ride out the uncertainty and begin 2021 fresh,” said Lisa.

Fairfax Associates is referenced, “Tuesday’s report from Fairfax Associates, which found that the pandemic will dramatically impact the number of mergers that are completed in the second half of the year.”

Kristin Stark is quoted “When firms are larger and have more lease obligations and they lose partners across a swath of their geography, that’s very challenging,” Stark said.

Lisa Smith is quoted: Most often, firms are somewhere between black box and totally transparent, and many are finding what they view as a happy medium on that spectrum, according to Lisa Smith, a law firm strategy and management consultant at Fairfax Associates.

Lisa Smith is quoted “I think people miss it more than they expected,” she said.

Kristin Stark is quoted discussing how practice heads are serving as “mini-managing partners” as law firms fight to maintain business continuity and ensure cohesion during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lisa Smith quoted: Smith said the increased focus on alignment between sector and geography is particularly noticeable with emerging tech hubs, like Seattle, Boston, Texas and Salt Lake City.

Lisa Smith is quoted: Lisa Smith, a principal at Washington, D.C.-based Fairfax Associates, estimated that maybe one out of 10, or one out of every 15 combination discussions actually advances to the merger stage. The top reason so many don’t go further? Conflicts, she said.

Lisa Smith is quoted: Consultant Lisa Smith of Fairfax Associates says new leaders taking over in 2021 should focus on their initiatives, despite the pandemic, because ‘If they were important before, they are still important.”

Lisa Smith and Fairfax merger data is quoted: “The interest in combinations is extremely high, and we’ve already, just in the last week, gotten inquiries from multiple firms trying to look at their options and trying to figure out strategy and merger options for the year,” she said.