Merger Activity Continues to Shape the Lateral Market
A recent Law.com article by Amanda O’Brien examines how the latest wave of Big Law mergers is contributing to continued lateral activity across key markets.
While mergers are designed to combine strengths and expand platform reach, the article highlights how periods of consolidation often create short-term volatility - prompting some partners to reassess their position while attracting others to newly combined firms.
Macrae London’s Eleonora Wäktare, comments in the piece on both attrition and retention dynamics, noting that mergers can serve as moments of both opportunity and fragility:
“While a merger allows a firm to hire a sizable number of lawyers in one go, it may still leave some gaps. We have seen merging firms continue to hire laterally for those partner positions where a merger did not fill a gap. More generally, movement creates more movement, and so we see law firms hiring strategically as a form of growth - in a way, mergers are lateral recruitment on steroids.”
The article also explores geographic concentrations of movement - particularly in New York, California, and Washington, DC - underscoring how the footprint of a merger can influence where lateral momentum is most visible.
As firms continue to reshape themselves through combinations and targeted hires, the pace of transformation across the market shows little sign of slowing.
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