Merger Merger on the Wall
26 Aug, 20264 minutes
Merger, Merger, Merger on the Wall, Who's the Fairest of Them All?
Once upon a merger…
The Scottish legal market has been full of mergers over the past few years, from witnessing major internationals coming together to small boutiques taking over high street firms. It's not something that's unheard of, and joining forces has been popular in the legal space lately. But what effect is it having on your staff, and on your reputation in the wider market?
There are a lot of moving parts when it comes to a merger and done well, it can turn you into a household name in the Scottish market. Done badly, it can turn you into the firm people quietly avoid, ‘the "oh no, I'm not working for or with them" reputation’.
Candidates and clients have come to me throughout the process of a merger, asking what they should do. Some have never been through one before and others want out before it's too late, and some just want an outsider's honest opinion on how it's all going to play out.
In this article, I will highlight some recent mergers, the dos and don'ts, and focus largely on the people who are part of this process and often get forgotten about.
Recent Mergers (2023 – 2026)
In recent years, Scotland has seen mergers come through from law firms of all different shapes and sizes. Some, you know now as a household name, but others have flown under the radar and not had the resounding success story. From 2023 – 2026, we have seen key mergers like:
Lindsays + Dallas McMillan (2026, Glasgow)
Thorntons + Macnabs (2025, Perthshire & Stirlingshire)
Cullen Kilshaw + McKinnon Forbes (2025, Scottish Borders & Edinburgh)
Wright, Johnston & Mackenzie + Davidson Chalmers Stewart + Irwin Mitchell (2023-2025, Central Belt)
Gilson Gray + Bowmans (2024, Dundee/Angus)
MacDonald Henderson + Ferguson Whyte (2024, Glasgow)
Morton Fraser + MacRoberts (2023, Central Belt)
This isn't every merger that's taken place in that time, however, it highlights a few key names and shows the different dynamics, scale, and approach that a merger can take.
But the question I get asked a lot is: who's done it best?
My answer is always the same - how do you actually measure that?
There's no black and white answer to who did it best, unless you're a numbers person who thinks growth and scale tell the whole story, and honestly, I don't think that's what's actually key to a merger's success. Don't get me wrong, it's important, just not the key.
We could look at the finances on the board, although for many of these newer mergers it'll take time to add up and really show the value of bringing two teams together, because there's always a settling-in period with any new team, colleagues, and firm, and it takes time to see how the numbers and stats have evolved.
But here's one way you can tell early whether a merger's gone well: watch the people. The lawyers. The paralegals, legal executives, and legal secretaries. The business development team. The HR department. Talent acquisition.
Watch them all, because when one piece of the puzzle starts to feel uneasy, it tends to throw the whole thing out of sync, and the data backs this up, with roughly 47% of employees at an acquired company typically gone within a year of the deal, rising to 75% within three years. That's not just a legal-sector problem; that's M&A across the board, and a widely cited McKinsey stat suggests roughly 70% of mergers fail to deliver what they set out to, not because the logic on paper was wrong, but because the human side got neglected.
So if you're reading this thinking, I'm just handing you a pile of problems, where are the solutions? Don't worry, I thought about that too, and I've put together a list you can put into practice whether you’re the firm or the employee.
Advice for law firms going through a merger
For firms going through a merger, if you want to retain your staff and make the numbers hit off the charts in the first few years:
Ask the people what they want, potentially before you share your own plans, because it may help you catch a mistake before you announce the grand vision and end up losing lots of staff as a result.
Look at the wider market and see what other merged teams or firms are doing well, and ask yourself why, or even better, ask them. The Scottish market is unique in that way as we do want to see each other succeed rather than fail, so don't be afraid to reach out to a Managing Partner or Business Development team at another firm who's been through it, because networking with leadership teams who've already merged will benefit you both.
Don't up billable hours as your first move or within the first few months. This is a common mistake I see, done by a larger firm merging with a smaller one, and it's the single most common thing I hear from candidates who decide they want to leave a merged firm. If you come across as too financially orientated, you'll make your employees feel like another cog in a machine, and this mistake sadly tends to come paired with no salary increase but more work expected of them. So if you want to hold on to your staff, tread carefully in those opening months.
Host a welcome event and make the transition feel like an occasion rather than extra work on top of the day job. Bring together all employees, new and old, so they can meet each other properly, and use the moment to either propose your ideas or run it as a Q&A to answer their concerns, and don't make drastic changes without running them past the team first, because that's what makes them feel like this is their project too, and that they're helping you grow it rather than just watching it happen to them.
Promote it on socials once things are underway, shouting about the highs and the lows and showing the legal world what you're doing, because it won't always be good news, but people connect with the truth of what running a business is like. It might also attract lawyers who see what you're doing and want to be part of it, because people sell people, and that goes for selling the firm to potential employees just as much as it does to potential clients.
None of this is complicated, and none of it costs much either. It just takes a bit of thought and a willingness to put your people first, ahead of the spreadsheet, and if you get that part right, the numbers tend to follow anyway as your employees trust you, your plans and the trajectory you have in mind.
Advice for employees in a law firm merger
As a person who hates change, a merger would be my worst nightmare, if I'm honest, and that's exactly where I'd want to panic and look to leave. That being said, here are a few reasons why it's important in these times of change that you shouldn't panic, because making a panicked career move could be detrimental to your career and its trajectory.
Ask questions early on, and don't wait until they come to you with their plans, because then you're on the back foot from the outset and may not be able to help guide the change. Go to your manager and ask what it means for your team specifically, not just the glossy version that gets sent round in the all-staff email, and find out what's changing and how it impacts you, what you're working on, where you're based, and the timelines of the career development you'd already discussed, but don't go in panicked, make a list first and go through it like you mean business.
Watch for the signs that tell you more than how the announcement lands initially. Pay attention to how the news has been received by others in the office, for instance, does Senior Leadership feel secure, or is it crumbling at the first sight of the merger? I've seen it before, and I'll see it again: in these situations, people vote with their feet before they vote with their mouths, and if the folk you regard highly are getting twitchy, that tells you something the press release won't.
Don't panic and jump immediately, because mergers are unsettling, but a wobbly first six months doesn't automatically mean it's the wrong thing to stay while new firms and new teams find their feet. Sometimes taking that risk is worth it, especially if you're seeing leading lawyers and top-tier work coming through the door. So before you think "there's a merger, I don't like it, I'm leaving," pause, watch the market closely, and don't make any hasty decisions, giving it a fair chance to bed in before you make a decision you can't take back.
Don't, however, sit and wait it out if your gut's telling you otherwise. If the culture shift feels wrong, if billable targets have drastically gone up, or if you're doing the same job for less recognition, trust that. It's often a sign of what's still to come once those first six months have passed. You're allowed to explore your options quietly while you watch how it plays out, that's not disloyal, that's sensible, and you have a duty to do that for yourself regardless of anyone else.
Talk to a legal recruiter or someone you trust in your legal network, who knows the market and your firm's merger situation, because you want someone with an unbiased opinion who can give you a clear idea of where you stand. This is where someone like me earns their keep, as I can tell you what's happening or if you should be worried about that, since chances are I've placed people in and out of it recently, and you don't have to make sense of a merger on your own from the inside, because that can be overwhelming and cloud your judgement.
Remember, it's not all bad. A merger doesn’t only have the opportunity to be a risk, it can be opportunity too; with new teams, new practice areas, and sometimes new leadership that's more ambitious than what you had before. Not every merger is a horror story, and some of the best career growth I've seen has come out of exactly this kind of shake-up, the kind a firm needed to give it a new lease of life.
Mergers go well and mergers go bad, but as an employee, it's about being organised and informed enough to make the decisions that are right for you and your career.
The Moral of the Story
A merger is unsettling because it's change, and most of us aren't wired to love change. However, going in with your eyes open, and with someone in the legal space in your corner who will tell you the truth about the market, makes a huge difference to how it feels.
Throughout this article, I've tried not to focus on the financial aspects of mergers, even though they're important, and let's face it, money makes the world go round. But without the people doing the hard work and making the crucial decisions, that money wouldn't be going anywhere at all. There's no handbook on how to make a merger great and successful, or how to make it go awfully wrong and close within a year. If firms want to do their best and make a real go of it, go back to basics. Communicate and listen to the people who know the two organisations best; they will tell you more than any handbook could.
For candidates, do not panic. Decisions made in panic don't help anyone, but there's a fine line between staying calm and letting yourself be taken advantage of when billable hours start rising and the package doesn't match.
If you're a firm looking for market insight on how to navigate a merger successfully, speak to me or any of the experienced consultants at JMC. And if you're a candidate, I'm always at the end of the phone to talk through any concerns, no matter how big or small.
