News & Events
News & Events
Big Law Has Saturated the Biggest U.S. Cities. Where Is the Next Frontier?
Lisa Smith questions whether a city like Boston can be considered insulated anymore because of how many national firms have set up shop there.
From Drinker to Duane Morris, What’s Behind a Wave of Healthier, Faster Law Firm Combinations?
Lisa Smith is quoted. “These were all firms that were performing well, have good rates and strong balance sheets and all those things,” Lisa Smith, a consultant at Fairfax Associates, said of the recent mergers. “these firms are operating from a position of strength in that they didn’t have to do anything.”
Big Law’s Big Entrance into Indiana Driven by Client Demand, Firms Say
Kristin Stark is quoted discussing the impact of merger related growth of larger firms in smaller Midwest legal markets.
Moving Targets: Which Markets Will Attract Law Firms’ Attention in 2020
Lisa Smith is quoted. “We are continuing to see firms anywhere from 100 lawyers to 600 to 700 lawyers feel like they need more scale in order to compete effectively,” says Lisa Smith, a principal at Fairfax Associates. “I think we’ll continue to see consolidation in the form of laterals and groups or small acquisitions or mergers of equal size. Consolidation is going to continue to be big in 2020.”
In Potential Pepper Hamilton-Troutman Sanders Merger, Scale Can Be a Strategy
Lisa Smith is quoted. “Those are priority growth markets for firms going national, and they are markets where it’s hard to get talent,” Smith said.
Lathrop Gage to Combine with Gray Plant Mooty
Kristin Stark is mentioned as having introduced the two firms to one another.
Are Law Firm Mergers Hot or Not? It Depends Who’s Counting
Lisa Smith is quoted. “It’s the bigger combinations that drive consolidation,” Smith said. “If there were 100 mergers of two-lawyer firms, they wouldn’t make much of a difference in the legal market.”
Law Firm Merger Market Stayed Sluggish in Q3
Lisa Smith is quoted. “It’s surprising this year that we haven’t seen the big mergers we have seen in the past,” adding that she wouldn’t rule out more significant combinations slated for Jan. 1, 2020, or beyond.
Texas and Cross-Border Activity Driving Mergers
Law Firm Mergers Continue at a Strong Pace in 2018
From Hiring to Billing: Digging Into Core Firm Management Issues
ALM Business of Law Forum, New York, NY, January 2018