Law Firm Mergers Stay Hot

Question – How are global temperatures and law firm mergers alike? Answer – Every year they set a new record. 2017 saw 102 mergers, many of them combinations between bigger firms. According to Altman Weil Inc’s MergerLine, 2018 is on pace for another record. The largest recent deal was the merger of Clark Hill, a 450-lawyer firm based in Detroit, with Dallas-based Strasburger & Price, which has just under 200 lawyers. That followed two previous mergers of Texas firms – 300-lawyer Andrews Kurth with Hunton & Williams and 230-lawyer Gardere Wynne with Foley & Lardner. Philadelphia’s Fox Rothschild acquired two law firms earlier this year, adding 23-lawyer Shaw Fishman Glantz & Towbin of Chicago, and Rollin Braswell Fisher, a small firm in Denver. In major cross-border acquisitions, Littler Mendelson acquired a Dutch labour and employment boutique and global law firm Dentons added a 44-lawyer Hawaiian firm.