Rise in law firm mergers expected to continue

Five years after taking a nosedive during the pandemic, the number of law firm mergers is steadily on the rise across the nation, and experts say the growth is here to stay.

“Clients are demanding greater depth of expertise, and they’re demanding greater bench strength,” said Kristin Stark, principal at Fairfax Associates. “Those are two critical factors that are driving consolidation activity.”

So far in 2025, Fairfax has identified 47 completed law firm mergers in the United States, with eight alone in the third quarter. That number is up from 43 for the same period a year ago and is on track to reach its highest annual number since the pandemic.

Merger numbers for the end of the third quarter peaked in 2018 at 56.

The national trend has been apparent in Indiana this year as several law firms with a substantial presence in the state announced major moves.

In January, Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP completed a merger with Denver-based firm Sherman & Howard LLC, adding over 100 attorneys to Taft’s team of attorneys spanning from the Mountain West to Washington D.C.

Taft continued its expansion in June when it completed a merger with Florida-based Mrachek Law. It will add over 100 more attorneys this winter when it completes its merger with Atlanta-founded Morris, Manning & Martin, effective Dec. 31, bringing the total number of Taft attorneys to more than 1,200.

“Taft has been very, very strategic [with its consolidation plan]. We have a 20-year plan, we follow that plan. We’re very disciplined about it,” said Bob Hicks, managing partner at Taft.

Frost Brown Todd LLP and Krieg DeVault LLP also announced new mergers in October, each with effective dates of Jan. 1, 2026.

And in October, Dentons completed a combination with the Tamrat Assefa Liban Law Offices in Ethiopia.

The firm, which expanded into Indianapolis after merging with Bingham Greenebaum Doll in 2020, announced in March its intention to complete two more combinations in Thailand and the Turks and Caicos Islands.

Stark said it’s most common to see law firms complete mergers at the very end or beginning of a given year.

“It is cleanest, simplest to complete the merger at the end of the fiscal year, which, for the majority of law firms, is (Dec. 31), and so they want to finish off their financial year and then combine as a new partnership as of (Jan. 1),” she said.

Some firms, however, target individual quarters. Apart from the end of the fourth quarter, the end of the second and third quarters tend to be the most common effective dates for mergers

“The first quarter is not, because you’re so early in the year, but we do see some of those,” she said.

Over the past 25 years, Fairfax has found that roughly 60% to 70% of mergers involved larger firms combining with smaller firms.

This, she said, can be attributed to sheer logistics.

“Larger firm deals are harder to get done,” she said. “They require a lot more compromise for a lot more people, more stakeholders, more owners, who have to be willing to compromise.”

Motivation in mergers

When selecting when and where to merge, several factors come into play.

Taft’s Atlanta merger is part of its continued efforts to put the law firm on a national stage while still maintaining local autonomy.

Taft ranks 79th among the nation’s largest 100 law firms based on gross revenue, according to the Am Law 100. In the Indianapolis market, Taft has 172 attorneys, making it the second-largest law firm in the area, according to Indianapolis Business Journal research.

“We have a non-headquarter model, so each market has a partner in charge, and they really run that market,” Hicks said. “It’s really important to most lawyers that they not feel like they’re in a satellite, so I think that’s a huge piece of our culture.”

This emphasis on company culture is embedded in Taft’s decisions to pursue or not pursue a potential merger. For as many mergers as the firm has completed, the firm has turned down 20 times as many, Hicks said.

Before a combination is considered, the firm investigates its counterpart’s core values and how they treat employees.

Leaders at Krieg DeVault, which announced its Jan. 1 merger with Fort Wayne-based Rothberg Law last month, echo the same mindset.

When scouting new attorneys and mergers, Krieg DeVault assesses compatibility using its CORE method: commitment, ownership, respect, and excellence.

“You can’t have a law firm without clients, but you also can’t have clients without a great team. And so all of our growth strategy is behind, ‘how do we improve the team to better serve our clients?’” said Mike Messaglia, managing partner at Krieg DeVault.

Before a merger takes place, firms also consider how the individual firms’ services align. Krieg DeVault was already servicing clients in the Fort Wayne area, so merging with Rothberg made sense. But Rothberg also places an emphasis on the banking and health care sectors, two sservice areas for Krieg DeVault.

Krieg DeVault is 8th-largest law firm in the Indianapolis market with 72 local attorneys, a tie with Frost Brown Todd.

For Taft, its merger with Morris, Manning & Martin highlights its commitment to growing as a middle market practice.

“Our rates in Indianapolis are very similar to what the Morris Manning rates are in Atlanta,” Hicks said.

Ultimately, these mergers are designed to help firms grow in order to accommodate clients’ changing expectations.

“The firms that have the most depth and the most bench, as a general trend, are performing at the highest levels economically, and those firms are continuing to grow in order to build their depth and bench,” said Stark.

Emerging technology such as artificial intelligence and its efficiency can impact how law firms work to meet client needs.

“We now evaluate not just the legal expertise, but also a firm’s readiness to adopt new technologies, manage information securely, and comply with evolving data privacy regulations,” Messaglia said. “These are things that are required of us as we service our clients, but mergers are also an opportunity to combine resources and invest in technology.”

Both Messaglia and Hicks emphasized the importance of strategic growth in the health of a law firm and avoiding growth just for the sake of it.

Hicks also believes that mergers are where the future of the legal practice is headed, and firms that refuse to merge will miss out on the changes happening now and in the near future.

“When you have to invest in AI, and you have to invest in inclusion and diversity initiatives, and you have to invest in any kind of new technology and new people, to do that in a small firm is very difficult, because you’re not spreading that cost among enough people,” he said.

Fairfax anticipates ongoing high levels of mergers in 2026, particularly as client expectations evolve and law firms work to keep up with demand.•