It is a racing certainty that conversation between partners in different firms will quickly move to the subject of mergers. Why? Because the subject declares an interest in a big picture strategy and an upheaval of the existing legal pecking order.

For two firms to merge there is only one question and two sets of hurdles to overcome. The hurdles are cultural and technical and the question is: what value is the merger going to add and is that added value worth the huge expenditure of management time and resources that are required to steer a merger through successfully?

The first hurdle is to get the agreement of the partnership. The partners must actively embrace the concept of merger and the strategic vision that runs in tandem with it, as it is they who will take the new firm forward if it is to succeed. The merger will never flourish if it does not sit comfortably within the strategy of each firm. The problem is that partnerships sometimes have difficulty in grappling the business disciplines required to make strategic decisions at this 'big picture' level.