Law Firms Launch Alliances When Mergers Are Too Much to Bear

An unconventional law firm partnership announced Monday shows how attorneys are seeking the benefits of a merger without entering a full tie-up.

Two firms—Philadelphia-based Vaughan McLean and Buffalo’s Cohen Cunningham DeRose Higgins Lyon—are creating a new civil defense practice called Cohen Vaughan. The wrinkle is that the two underlying firms will keep some separate operations while practicing law as one entity.

“There are some philosophical and logistical differences that would have been hard to reconcile in a conventional merger,” Richard Cohen, chairman and chief development officer of the new firm, said in an interview. “There were so many synergies and ...