According to Hildebrandt, leading consultants to the legal industry, law firm merger activity was slower during the third quarter of 2009, with a total of seven completed law firm mergers and acquisitions involving US law firms. This compares with 13 completed US mergers in the third quarter of 2008, and 10 in the third quarter of 2007. On an annualized basis, the number of mergers in 2009 is on track with 2008, due largely to the high number of mergers completed in the 1st quarter of the year.
The largest US merger of the third quarter of 2009 was between Boston-based Bingham McCutchen and McKee Nelson in Washington and New York. The second largest merger was between Cincinnati’s Dinsmore & Shohl and Louisville, KY law firm Woodward, Hobson & Fulton.
The average size of the smaller firm in each combination was 36, similar to the average of 39 in the third quarter of 2008 but larger than the average of 14 in the second quarter of 2009. Two of the seven merged firms had more than 50 lawyers; two had fewer than 10 lawyers.
Globally, there were six mergers involving law firms outside the US during the third quarter of 2009. There were two cross-border mergers, between PRC law firm King & Wood and Hong Kong’s Arculli Fong and Ng, and between Canadian firm Fasken Martineau and French firm Gravel, Leclerc & Partners. There were two intra-India mergers, both involving firms in Bangalore. Other merger activity took place in Spain and Italy. There are two mergers involving law firms outside the US slated to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2009, and a large cross-border combination between the UK’s Norton Rose Group and Deacons Australia is expected to be completed at the beginning of 2010.
Lisa Smith, head of Hildebrandt’s Law Firm Strategy and Merger Practice, said “The slowdown in merger activity in the 3rd quarter is a result of the attention firms paid to internal realignment in the first half of the year. Now that many firms are starting to look ahead and refocus on strategic positioning we are seeing an increased interest in both domestic and global expansion.”
In addition to tracking mergers and acquisitions among law firms, Hildebrandt tracks office openings around the globe. In the third quarter of 2009, we tracked 20 office openings, 85% of which did not involve a combination with another firm. Eleven office openings were in the US. The Middle East had four openings with one each in Bahrain, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Europe had three openings with two in Paris and one in Dusseldorf; there was one opening in Sydney, Australia and also one opening in Mauritius. In the US, there were three office openings in Pennsylvania followed by one each in Albuquerque, Anchorage, Chicago, Delaware, Florida, Seattle, Minneapolis and New Jersey.
________________________________________
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.
