According to Hildebrandt, leading consultants to the legal industry, law firm merger activity significantly increased during the first quarter of 2009, with a total of 33 completed law firm mergers and acquisitions involving US law firms. This compares with 22 completed US mergers in the first quarter of 2008, and 23 in the first quarter of 2007. Six additional mergers announced during the first quarter are to be completed during the second quarter of 2009, for a total of 39 thus far in 2009. Lisa Smith, head of Hildebrandt's Law Firm Strategy and Merger Practice, said “As we predicted at the beginning of the year the pace of consolidation in the legal industry has accelerated. We continue to see high interest in mergers and acquisitions, particularly as firms complete their internal restructuring processes and turn to strategic positioning.”
The largest US merger of 1Q2009 was the merger between K&L Gates and Bell, Boyd & Lloyd in Chicago. The second largest merger was between Bryan Cave and Powell Goldstein in Atlanta.
Of the 33 completed US mergers, there were two cross-border mergers: the combination of Jones Day and De Ovando y Martinez del Campo in Mexico City; and the merger of Miller Canfield Paddock & Stone with Gaertner Tobin in Toronto.
Although the average size of the smaller firm in each combination was, at 39, consistent with prior years, there were a significant number of mergers involving small firms in the first quarter of 2009. A total of 23 out of the 33 mergers involved firms with between 5 and 20 lawyers.
Domestically, California was the top destination for mergers, with four in the southern part of the state and one in the Silicon Valley area. There were two mergers each in Nashville, Florida, Phoenix, St. Louis, and Texas (Houston and Amarillo).
Globally, there were 12 mergers involving law firms outside the US during the first quarter of 2009. Four of the 12 mergers were cross-border; the balance took place within the same country. Two of these mergers involved UK firms, and two were in Scandinavia (one each in Finland and Sweden).
In addition to tracking mergers and acquisitions among law firms, Hildebrandt also tracks office openings around the globe. In the first quarter of 2009, we tracked 66 office openings, 60% of which did not involve a combination with another firm. Thirty-eight office openings were in the US. Europe, the Middle East, and Asia continue to be active markets, with five office openings in Singapore alone. In the US, California continues to be a key destination, with nine openings, followed by Phoenix and Florida with three each.
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PLEASE NOTE: MERGERWATCH collects data from published reports, press releases and direct reports from law firms. We include all mergers where the acquired firm has five or more lawyers. Upon routine verification of the data, some historical numbers have been updated since previously issued reports, and the number of mergers contained herein may change as additional mergers are announced.
About Hildebrandt
Hildebrandt, part of Thomson Reuters, is the world's experts on merger consulting and have advised on more mergers than all our competitors combined. When experience, objectivity and creativity are important Hildebrandt is the firm to call. The company, with more than 50 consultants located in the United States and London, is the undisputed leader in providing strategic advice, managerial guidance and implementation support to these organizations. For more information visit www.hildebrandt.com.
