If consolidation continues at this level, 2013 will see 11 per cent more practice mergers than 2008, the largest annual total so far for legal sector mergers. There were 70 such mergers in that year. The news comes as consultant Altman Weil MergerLine publishes Q2 stats for 2013. The biggest deal in Q2 is the union of St Louis-based Husch Blackwell, with its 543 lawyers, and Texas-based 65-lawyer practice Brown McCarroll. "Typically, the majority of law firm combinations are acquisitions of small law firms, because subsequent integration is so much easier if you have a dominant acquirer,' says Ward Bower, principal at Altman Weil.
As well as the deals included in the Q2 statistics, there were other deals that had been announced before. For instance, 850-lawyer Fulbright & Jaworski merged with UK-based Norton Rose in June to create Norton Rose Fulbright.
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