The final chapter, ‘What did we learn’, highlights key points from research. Harnetty also considers marketing and IT to enable you to plan and focus that successful integration. Culture, communications, behaviour of partners and staff, along with overlooked client considerations, can all come into play. There are many reasons why a ‘them-and-us’ attitude can remain. The book also discusses what can stop integration once a merger has been completed. There should be a well-thought-out strategy, and a project team (internal and external) which can sustain both momentum and a collaborative approach on both sides to create something that is bigger than the sum of the parts. For a transaction to succeed, a business case should be made, which is understood by all involved. This statement emphasises the point that a merger should never be a vanity project for either side, or for a dominant partner in a firm. While it is recommended that you keep all your advisers in the loop, and it is best to get all the issues out of the way early, one contributor rightly or perhaps bluntly suggests that ‘a pig wearing lipstick is still a pig’. Valuations at present do need to consider recent Covid spikes, especially in respect of conveyancing. But you should not operate in a deluded state that your firm, which has barely covered your own moderate drawings, will be something that someone else values highly, or at all. Recent deals I have been involved with generated goodwill payments, so do not believe that this is not possible. Where this has not been achieved, there is thus another reason why the sector is so merger and acquisition hungry. One reason why it is beneficial for partners to identify talent and future successors at an early stage, is to hopefully facilitate their own smooth transition into retirement. With an increasingly challenging recruitment arena, this brings firms’ succession issues into sharper focus. This should not be seen as weakness – surely the aim for any business is the continuation of service to clients. This process should never be one that is left until the last minute but one that is part of a firm’s long-term strategy.
#With the benefit of hindsight professional#
A firm might decide that the only way to avoid a painful professional indemnity run-off insurance payment is to find a merger partner, or a merger might be a neat geographical fit, or a merger might enhance services for an existing client base. Harnetty discusses the reasons for mergers. Whether that will come from consolidators or more traditional marriages of firms remains to be seen. It has been said for several years that the legal sector is due a merger and acquisition boom. These experiences from over 50 mergers are wrapped around chapters from other experts in the legal sector who have penned five of them. Therefore, it is what they have learnt and what they may have done differently that has such value. The great attraction of this book is that it provides insight through quotes from managing partners, senior partners, CEOs and COOs who have been fully involved in a merger and acquisition journey between 20. Anne Harnetty’s book will hopefully prove that saying true, and assist firms embarking on a merger and acquisition strategy. It is often said that many things would have been better with the benefit of hindsight. She has a wealth of experience providing constructive advice to Managing Partners and Boards on a range of issues within the legal sector and exchanging ideas and insights. Anne has over thirty five years’ experience working in the legal sector and is a director of several CEO, COO and CFO forums.
Inspiring for those considering M&A and insightful for day-to-day management of professional services partnerships.Īnne Harnetty is the founder and Director of Jonson Beaumont Core, which is a merger integration service providing project management and planning for every step of integration and Jonson Beaumont who specialise in search and selection in professional services for the C-Suite.
Featuring every key aspect of the M&A process from inception to completion, with advice on everything from strategy, culture, communications, finance, behaviour of partners and staff, client considerations, marketing and IT to enable you to plan and focus on successful integration. Benefit from their hindsight on themes that are recurrent, this is practical and entirely relatable with useful anecdotes and case studies on best practice.
Find out what stops integration working by using the insight of a peer group of Managing Partners. Compelling guide to law firm M&A that will challenge your thinking.