Although a law firm’s closure requires everyone to find a new job, mergers can also leave staff, including legal technologists, feeling particularly vulnerable.

“Mergers are very stressful,” says Marti Phillips, vice president of education at the International Legal Technology Association and a former law firm technologist. “When you have duplicates, somebody is going to be cut, and a lot of firms have legal technologists on both sides of a merger. I hate to say it, but when you have duplicates, you don’t need duplicate technologists.”