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NEWS MARCH 23, 2020 ¦ 11

‘It’s a Full Stop’:
Law Firm Mergers Slow Amid COVID-19

By David Thomas

L Photo: BsWei/Shutterstock.com
aw firms are still interested in merging and com- Despite this slowdown in activity, legal consultants
bining with other firms, but the activity that said law firm leaders are still interested in merging
makes those mergers happen—the exploratory or acquiring other firms. Some of them are waiting
talks, the face-to-face meetings, the negotiations— to know the full extent of the economic fallout of the
appears to have ground to a halt due to the ongoing pandemic—which is unknown at this point.
COVID-19 pandemic. Law firms that are committed to doing a deal
Altman Weil principal Tom Clay estimated that, are still interested in executing it, said Zeughauser
in a given two-week period, he’ll field 20 different Group consultant Kent Zimmermann. It’s the firms
calls from law firm partners who are interested in that were on the fence or not that far into merger
doing a merger. In the past two weeks, he’s only had talks that are pumping the brakes, he added.
two phone calls. Lisa Smith, a principal at Fairfax “For firms that aren’t that far along, I think some
Associates, has seen her own drop-off in law firm are taking a wait-and-see approach, and others are
merger activity in the wake of the coronavirus. assessing what this downturn is likely to do to their
“Managing partners have had to drop everything firm’s performance,” Zimmermann said, who noted
and look at how they’re going to deal with this,” Clay he was still advising law firms on mergers this week.
said. “It’s a full stop.”
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