Why do you think family law firms don’t merge or acquire each other? “Cats gonna fight” or “your books are a mess”? I honestly don’t know if I’ve ever heard of a successful merger between two family law firms, but it seems to make the most sense in a market like the one we’re in. Yet, they’re as ephemeral as Big Foot. It could be that family law firms are “special” and “we just don’t do that,” I suppose. Frankly, that’s nonsense. We’re a business just like any other and there are times when it’s a smart move for both sides to explore a future where they’re joined under one roof. A merged firm will conserve general and administrative resources and level up its talent pool. Revenues quickly step up, which creates even more opportunity for growth. “They hate me, and I hate them,” is the dominate minds set in family law, which might also explain why firms prefer to try and put each other out of business over exploring mutual growth. Perhaps these firms have adopted the animosity our family law clients feel for each other. This mindset blinds business owners to opportunity, just as it does our clients. A rational, unemotional approach to divorce and to business opportunities is always a better strategy. “Hostile takeovers” in family law are just stupid. They’re a narcissistic ego trip destined to backfire. You’ll make an enemy for life, where you never had one before. As Leonardo DeCaprio said in Django, “Gentlemen, you had my curiosity … but now you have my attention.” Bro dudes need to chill out. With tightening markets, the AI revolution, shortage of lawyers, and rising costs, it’s time for family law firms to seriously consider combining their resources to gain market advantage and improve client services. What do you think?
Jeffrey Holm
1mo
Others have already touched on this, but it seems hard to add much value by scaling in that particular practice area given the client only needs one attorney on the case and that attorney often has to spend substantial time in court. Lots of attorney labor. I suppose there’s some value prop to those that can’t figure out how to collect fees.
Russell Knight
1mo
You can't even sell a family law firm, so why should you merge it?
Bradley Dlatt
1mo
Full service law firms merge to gain strengths via expanded practice areas or georgraphic footprints, allowing them to expand their offerings to corporate clients. The family law client base can’t really be cross-sold or expanded in that way, so a merger would really just be competitors agreeing to compete internally instead of externally.
Kyle Harbaugh 🦎
1mo
M. David Johnson, you raise a lot of interesting points. I have seen firsthand how poorly a family law merger can go. It was a massive disaster for several reasons. The deal made a lot of sense. Benefits for all parties. However, both law firms were not what I would call "healthy". They let their dysfunctions get the better of them, and the deal dissolved a few months into the transition. I think overall, we don't see mergers much because law firm owners see the other guy as competition. Their ego is too big to admit that they could go father together. There are so many advantages to partnering together, costs go down on things like health insurance, retirement plans, and tech stacks. Shifting the mindset of firm owners is the place to start IMO.
Jeff Soilson
1mo
M. David Johnson, thanks for the post, and I see your point. The success stories that I’ve seen have been when groups of family law attorneys decide to operate under the bigger umbrella of a larger firm as a private clients group. In other scenarios, it was specialties that came together to synergize. For example, if you get a couple of people who are really good at adoptions and working on care and protection cases, and you put them together with divorce practitioners that are dealing with high net worth individuals with large asset and high income cases, that’s the kind of merger within a merger that could work best.
Ryan Sawyer
1mo
I couldn’t agree more. I believe that in 10-15 years a majority firms that refused to merge or sell to equity groups will cease to exist.
Family law firms don't merge often because of the "cats gonna fight" culture and the unique challenges of blending client-focused practices. It's a personal area of law, and merging also means merging different firm cultures and approaches.
Shon Cook
1mo
I think it is smart. But I don’t see tightening markets. Just tightening labor pools
M. David Johnson I think about this a lot. We are planning to pursue acqusitons in the second half of 2025 as a means to open new markets. We are certainly entering a time when scale is family law matters. That is becoming more apparent each year.
Seattle family law attorney (Fair Play Facilitator), Mom/Step-Mom of 6 - Transforming families through divorce, estate planning and pre-nuptials. Leadership, data, marketing, law firm consulting are my other passions.
1moSo I would love to discuss this with you. 🤔