Like an upscale wedding, there is much hard work and many months of planning involved in pulling off a successful merger between two large law firms. The first stage is the courtship and getting-to-knowyou period, which can last from a few weeks to many months – or longer. Then there is the public announcement and the setting of the date. Between the announcement and the happy day, there is a tremendous flurry of activity (and angst) involved in making preparations, printing stationery, making financial arrangements, launching the new public image and, finally, presenting the joined couple to the world as a newly-united team.
However, mergers differ from marriages, in that a merger is rarely complete on day one. Behind the public image of the one firm, there are complex back-office systems and processes still to be merged and worked out. Specifically, no law firm merger can be truly complete until the practice management systems (PMS) are successfully fused into a single, well-designed unit.
