A stagnant U.S. legal market? Don’t tell the firms that have been keeping busy — and battling new rivals — across the Midwest.
On the merger front, Missouri-based Husch Blackwell combined with Wisconsin firm Whyte Hirschboeck Dudek, posting the largest law firm merger in the U.S. in 2016, according to Altman Weil MergerLine. Law firm leaders in Chicago; Minneapolis; Cleveland; Kansas City, Missouri; St. Louis; Indianapolis; Milwaukee; and Detroit are all reacting to new challenges in their hometown markets with gusto. Some have begun competing for work outside their traditional markets, reacting to industrywide price pressures that make their lower billing rates attractive.
