Harrisburg-based Rhoads & Sinon is facing major changes, as it looks to combine with another law firm following a number of departures in the past year.

Managing partner Drake Nicholas said Thursday that Rhoads & Sinon is “working on a strategic alliance with a firm.” He said he could not identify the other firm under a nondisclosure agreement. The alliance would be “along the lines of a merger,” he said.

“We think it has some great possibilities, and we plan to be in Harrisburg as we've always been,” Nicholas said.

Two other people with knowledge of the firm said Rhoads & Sinon will likely cease to exist in its current form at the end of the year. And multiple sources said various Rhoads & Sinon lawyers have been looking for a place to land at other law firms in Pennsylvania.

The 82-year-old firm had 43 lawyers at the end of last year, according to its website, and now is down to 28. The most dramatic departure came in February, when nine lawyers left to form their own firm, Pillar + Aught.

Another group broke away from Rhoads & Sinon in October, when a partner and two associates left to form Penwell Bowman + Curran. The same month two additional Rhoads & Sinon lawyers joined the nine founders of Pillar + Aught. And in November, Rhoads & Sinon lost the head of its construction practice, Michael Winfield, to Post & Schell.

Rhoads & Sinon lists 26 practice areas on its site, but those with the most lawyers following this year's departures were its business litigation, bankruptcy, banking, municipal finance and Marcellus, oil and gas practices. The firm also has an office in Exton, where the lawyers mainly focus on health law.