For an intellectual property boutique weathering tough times, looking for a bigger firm to link up with can seem like an attractive option. And picking up those smaller firms may be a good strategic move for a BigLaw operation, but experts say firms must show discernment and be ready for the post-merger investment to avoid pitfalls that stand in the way of mutual success.
According to leaders at bigger firms that have combined with boutiques in recent years, BigLaw firms need to be ready for the significant investment of integrating, and first make sure that any potential merger aligns first with a firm’s culture and strategy...
“If you’re not first driven by strategy and culture, I don’t think the merger’s going to work,” Haynes and Boone LLP Managing Partner Tim Powers told Law360 in a recent interview...
“You absolutely need to stay disciplined on your culture, because as you’re growing, if you are not aligned culturally, that culture is going to die by a thousand cuts,” Powers said. He added that [Haynes and Boone's] mergers were the result of long-working relationships with shared clients, in which they’d had plenty of time to figure out that they would be aligned culturally.
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