With the dust settling on the surprise merger talks between arch-rivals Clyde & Co and Barlow Lyde & Gilbert, the question is how likely a deal will be to happen. As Legal Week went to press, the odds looked maybe better than even, with talk that a proposal could be put to the firms’ partnerships in a matter of weeks – most likely in July.
The need to press on is understandable. If mergers are worth doing they get done quickly – at least once they have gone public. At the least, both firms will want to resolve the situation before the summer dead-zone starts.
