At a time when it seems like every month a law firm acquires or merges with another firm, many small and midsize firms deliberately have stayed off that playing field. There are no shortcuts to managing, growing and maintaining a law firm, and the approach that works for some does not work for all. For the firms that seek to maintain long-term independence, remaining true to who they are and their original goals helps ensure their staying power, allowing them to remain a consistent partner to clients. As we emerge from COVID, legal publications regularly tout the benefits of law firm combinations. But the increasingly popular belief that small and midsize firms must acquire or be acquired is wrong. My firm, Hangley Aronchick Segal Pudlin & Schiller, is an example of why.

Merger Mania

Law firm combinations nationally reached a record high in 2019, just before the pandemic, with 115 deals that year. After fewer combinations in 2020 and 2021 during the height of COVID-19 (67 and 84, respectively), merger activity picked up again in 2022 with 102 deals. So far in 2023, there have been fewer than 50 deals, but merger activity has recently ticked up, and legal analysts predict that mergers will accelerate by the end of 2023 and into 2024. To name just a few examples, earlier this year Detroit-based Clark Hill absorbed litigation boutique Conrad O'Brien and real estate firm Larsson & Scheuritzel, both first-generation, Philadelphia-based firms; and nationally, London-founded Allen & Overy plans to merge with Shearman & Sterling, which would create a behemoth firm of nearly 4,000 lawyers across almost 50 offices worldwide.