03.19 Legal Briefs - LSAG Newsletter

2018 Mergers: An All-Time High BY DEREK DANIELS & DAVID C. SMITH The world of corporate mergers and acquisitions (M&A) had an extremely strong 2018. According to Thomson Reuters’s Q3 report, worldwide M&A in the first nine months of 2018 was up 37% across all industries from the same time period a year earlier 1 . Law firms have also been extremely active recently in the M&A space. Dentons may be the poster child of the globalization of the modern law firm. Initially created by the merger of three firms in 2013, Denton’s has grown its influence through nearly 20 different mergers, alliances or associations 2 . It now consists of over 9,000 attorneys across 175 different global offices. It has been the most active firm in terms of merging / acquiring over the past two years, but it is far from the only one looking to grow aggressively. There were over 100 different law firm mergers in each of 2017 and 2018, according to Altman Weil 3 . The 106 deals in 2018 are the highest for the current economic expansion, surpassing the 10-year average of 77 deals per year by 28% and doubling the total number of mergers executed in 2009.

TOTAL ANNUAL LAW FIRM COMBINATIONS

120

102 106

100

91

88

85

82

80

10-year avg: 77

60 60

60

53

39

40

20

0

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

Source: Altman Weil; Cushman & Wakefield Research

1 Thomson Reuters, “ Merger & Acquisitions Review: First Nine Months 2018 ,” September 2018, p.2, available from ThomsonReuters.com, accessed January 11, 2019. 2 According to the company’s website (https://www.dentons.com/en/ whats-different-about-dentons/a-legacy-of-innovation/timeline) 3 Altman Weil MERGERline

CUSHMAN & WAKEFIELD | 3