Lateral Merger Trends - It's Not Just Retirement Minded Firms that are Merging Up

Until the past few years the vast majority of firm mergers related closely to the age and succession issues of the smaller firm. More or more firms now are considering an upstream merger as a means to grow better and faster. These tend to be multi partner firms with an acceptable dispersion of ages within the partner ranks. Some of the considerations are:

• Improved ability to recruit in a larger firm
• Pace and status of technology
• Regulatory demands of the profession
• A desire to provide a broader range of client services
• Ability to achieve meaningful economies of scale.

This is an ongoing trend and more and more of my time is spent consulting with Managing Partners about merging up.