When 10-lawyer Los Angeles boutique Barton Klugman & Oetting combined with Am Law 100 firm Clark Hill this summer, the firm was feeling pressure from clients to go big—a growing dynamic that may lead to more boutiques combining with larger firms.

“What we had found was that the marketplace maybe has moved past boutique firms a little bit,” Barton Klugman managing partner Tod Beebe said at the time of his firm’s acquisition by Clark Hill.