Nearly half of the law firms responding to a recent survey would consider merging in the next two years. Most cited the primary driver as growth with law firm mergers seen as the way to deliver cost savings, economies of scale as well as new practice areas and size. However, when asked to consider the effectiveness of most law firm mergers over the past five years, less than half (43 per cent) of respondents from merged firms agreed they were effective and a further 21 per cent went so far as to describe them as unsuccessful.Two-thirds of non-merged firms confessed to pursuing unsuccessful merger discussions over the past five years. The survey of 102 of the UK's top-200 law firms was undertaken by Fox Williams and Byfield Consultancy