Law.com Feature: "Law Firm Disrupted: The Mid-Market is Having Its Moment"

Law Firm Disrupted: The Mid-Market is Having Its Moment

A flurry of law firm merger activity and office launches has dominated recent headlines, with midsize and Second Hundred firms largely leading the charge on both fronts. These firms face rising pressure to compete with Big Law amid intensifying demand.

Law firm combinations, in particular, were up 21% through the first half of the year and have shown no signs of slowing through the dog days of summer, with several mergers completed so far in the third quarter.

For instance, McDermott, Will & Emery’s merger with Schulte, Roth & Zabel created McDermott, Will & Schulte on Aug. 1, bolstering the combined firm’s foothold in New York.

But most of the mergers in recent weeks involved a Second Hundred firm or regional firm merging with a smaller shop or boutique.

Maynard Nexsen nearly doubled its headcount in Atlanta through a recent combination with a real estate boutique, and Fennemore Craig, which in May also combined with an Arizona employment firm, recently announced its combination with a Denver-based construction law boutique. Porter Wright Morris & Arthur expanded its offering in Chicago with the acquisition of a local litigation boutique. All three larger firms fall within the Second Hundred.

Meanwhile, Am Law 200 firm Stinson merged with a California boutique to launch offices in San Francisco and Irvine, while 160-lawyer firm Nutter McClennen & Fish opened two offices via combinations with boutique firms in California and Hawaii. For its part, 200-lawyer firm Stevens & Lee launched a new office in New Jersey via a combination with a local boutique, marking its third merger and third new office since June.

Chicago-based Harrison, an estate planning firm with more than 200 lawyers, also opened an office in San Francisco this week with an 11-lawyer team from another California boutique.

The recent string of office openings reflects an apparent reversal from recent years. Greg Hamman, chief data officer at Decipher Investigative Intelligence, told Andrew Maloney that office openings are “outpacing the last few years by about 10-15%” in the first half of 2025.

Law firms outside of the Am Law 100 have largely been doing all the office openings and combinations.

So why is the mid-market having all the fun?

“As we see a lot of competition growing, especially when it comes to midsize firms, I think they’re feeling the squeeze in terms of client demand … to have a significant presence in certain areas, or broaden their geographic footprint, or provide further and additional capabilities to key practice areas for the firm,” New York-based legal recruiter Elaine Oh, of The Foster Group, told me.

Particularly amid economic downturn or uncertainty, Oh said, clients often demand “more value or more cost efficiency,” which allows midsize firms to swoop in and offer better rate flexibility. But, to sweeten, the deal, many of these firms are also seeking the merger route in order to “provide more stability in volatile markets and combine the financial strengths between the two firms.”

“There is that pressure for midsize law firms to keep up and take advantage of that opportunity, in terms of taking those clients from bigger law firms,” she said.

Oh said that while she expects consolidation activity to keep trending upward throughout the legal industry, the midsize market is likely to continue to dominate that trend for the foreseeable future.

https://www.law.com/2025/08/07/law-firm-disrupted-the-mid-market-is-having-its-moment-/