The pace of law firm mergers picked up in the past three months though it still lags behind pre-pandemic numbers, according to legal consultancy Fairfax Associates.
Firms completed eight mergers in the quarter compared with six in the same period of 2020, Fairfax found. Those totals were both lower than the 16 completed in the same period of 2019.
“The on-going pandemic” slowed combinations, Fairfax said in a statement. “The number of mergers will return to a higher level in 2022 as firms seek to enhance depth and scale and increase market share.”
The pandemic has forced law firms to postpone merger efforts while they concentrate on successfully running practices from remote locations and finding associates to help shoulder the workload.
This year’s merger pace—33 through the first three quarters—is running below the historical average of 44 per year from 2011 to 2020, Fairfax found. The 33, however, is ahead of last year’s pace by one.
The largest merger in the quarter was Miami-based Holland & Knight, with some 1,200 lawyers, combining with Dallas-based Thomson & Knight, with about 280.
The next two biggest involved Crowell & Moring, with about 580 lawyers, and Chicago-based intellectual property firm Brinks Gilson & Lione, with about 60; and Thompson Coburn of St. Louis, with 375 lawyers, and New York-based Hahn & Hessen, with just under 45.
The remaining five mergers all involved firms with 15 or fewer lawyers and covered a wide geographical area. Three were in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and two were in Denver and Texas.
Two other mergers were announced in the third quarter. They include Kansas City, Mo.-based Spencer Fane, with 285 lawyers, and Nashville, Tenn.-based Bone McAllester Norton, with 40 lawyers. Baltimore-based Offit Kurman, with 232 lawyers, announced its plans to merge with Snitow Kaminetsky Rosner & Snitow, a six-lawyer New York litigation and transactional firm.
Fairfax compiles its numbers from published reports, press releases and direct reports from law firms. The group reports mergers when the acquired firm has five or more lawyers.
To contact the reporter on this story: Elizabeth Olson at egolson1@gmail.com
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