Speculation about potential law firm mergers and acquisitions makes for good sport, not to mention serious business. Today, ALM Intelligence released a tool that gives speculators some hard-and-fast data and the ability to model what a potential merger would look like.

Available to subscribers to ALM Intelligence’s Legal Compass platform for data research and analysis, the M&A modeling tool allows users to analyze potential mergers and acquisitions within the legal market and create a profile of what the merged firm would look like.

“Law firms are always playing the ‘what-if’ game, and this tool enables firms and consultants to assess various potential combinations,” Patrick Fuller, vice president, legal, said in an announcement of the tool. “Additionally, it becomes a core competitive intelligence tool for rivals as part of the assessment of pending law firm mergers.”

The tool allows users to:

  • Model a merger of any law firms that appear on ALM’s Am Law 200, Global 100 and UK 50 ranking lists, view their combined financial histories, and project their combined Am Law and Global ranks.
  • Get information on the global footprint of the combined firms and see where overlap would reduce operating budgets and increase domestic and international coverage.
  • Get information on practice areas and better understand which firms would bring strength in which areas.
  • Get diversity data on both firms, and how the combined firm would stack up on ALM’s Diversity, Gender and LGBT Scorecards.

By way of example, ALM Intelligence points to recent speculation about a possible merger between Allen & Overy and O’Melveny & Myers. The new M&A tool shows that, if this merger were to occur, the combined firm would rank fourth in the Global 100 with nearly $3 billion in gross revenue. It would have some 3,000 lawyers and a physical presence in about 50 cities across the globe.

Photo of Bob Ambrogi Bob Ambrogi

Bob is a lawyer, veteran legal journalist, and award-winning blogger and podcaster. In 2011, he was named to the inaugural Fastcase 50, honoring “the law’s smartest, most courageous innovators, techies, visionaries and leaders.” Earlier in his career, he was editor-in-chief of several legal publications, including The National Law Journal, and editorial director of ALM’s Litigation Services Division.