It started four years ago during a routine visit from law firm consultants Hildebrandt International to the Manhattan offices of Tenzer Greenblatt. But the long and winding road of merger negotiations with Blank Rome Comisky & McCauley did not officially end until yesterday when the firms publicly announced their union.

What took the two sides so long? According to Michael S. Mullman, a Tenzer Greenblatt managing committee member and now administrative partner of the combined firms’ New York office, it was all a matter of timing.