There’s been a noticeable shift in timing this year: partners aren’t waiting for mergers to close. They’re leaving before the ink dries.
According to ALM’s May 2025 M&A Tracker, lateral partner movement among firms in active merger discussions is up 28% year-over-year. In some cases, partners are walking months—even quarters—before leadership confirms anything publicly.
Why? Because experienced lawyers have learned that by the time a merger is official, their options have already narrowed.
What Senior Lawyers Are Seeing
These early exits aren’t panic-driven. They’re calculated.
Many partners are spotting the signs:
- Internal budgets freezing with no explanation
- Lateral hiring paused without public rationale
- BD resources redirected toward “integration planning”
- Leadership offering non-answers to clear strategic questions
As one former Am Law partner told us: “You don’t need a press release to know you’re being restructured.”
Fairfax Associates’ Q2 Law Firm Combination Report backs this up, noting that mergers increasingly come with practice group consolidation or a shift in strategic investment focus. That doesn’t always leave room for every legacy partner.
Why Early Movers Have the Advantage
Senior lawyers who move before a merger is finalized often:
- Retain more control over their client transition strategy
- Preserve origination and compensation leverage
- Avoid cultural misalignment during a rushed post-merger integration
It also lets them tell the story on their terms—not as an afterthought to a leadership change.
The firms who benefit most from mergers are often the ones who plan for them early. The same is true for partners.
Sources:
- ALM Intelligence, M&A Tracker May 2025
- Fairfax Associates, Law Firm Combination Report Q2 2025
- Interviews with Am Law partners (Esquire Talent Network, 2024–2025)
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