NOTE: Due to licensing restrictions, the CD that accompanies this book is not available for loan.

Here's the Guide You Need When Weighing Your Merger Decision
Businesses and consumers are more savvy than ever about the legal services they need, and if your firm cannot provide those services, they won't hesitate to go elsewhere. With increased specialization and geographic expansion within the legal marketplace, more and more firms are faced with adapting to change. Although a variety of solutions are available when change is in order, an increasingly popular alternative is the law firm merger.

When and Why to Merge
A well-planned merger can reap many benefits for the combining firms if the decision to merge is based on legitimate business reasons. Whether it's two solo practices or the world's largest law firms, the consolidation of two legal practices must be treated as the joining of two businesses, no different from corporate mergers. And that can mean a complex and confusing process–until now.

This revised and updated Third Edition of Anatomy of a Law Firm Merger by Hildebrandt International provides you and your firm–no matter what size or type of practice–with the expert advice on what you need to consider when contemplating a merger, and how to successfully make it happen. It features a completely updated financial perspective for today's changing financial picture, plus a revised discussion of the economic balance sheet to help quantify the value each firm brings to the merger. In addition, there is all-new material on integrating hard assets into the merger, and newly updated technology information.

With an emphasis on achieving your strategic business goals, this step-by-step guide covers:

• Determining if a merger will be beneficial
• Using an outside service to locate potential candidates
• Naming the firm, conflicts of interest in practice areas, and partner compensation
• Defining each firm's culture and assessing the ability to integrate them
• Pricing and billing procedures, and what to do when they differ
• Developing pro forma income and cash flow projections before merging
• Determining what to include in your merger notebook or prospectus
• Ensuring quality control and workflow
• Standardizing recruiting and training practices
• Notifying current clients of the merger
• Publicizing and marketing the new firm
• Guaranteeing uninterrupted client service during the integration process

Checklists, Worksheets, and Sample Agreements
You'll find 25 exhibits on an accompanying CD-ROM to make the merger process easier and error-free. You'll find a first meeting agenda, strategic merger checklist, expertise chart for determining practice area strengths, income and cash flow statement analyses, a sample merger agreement, discussion agenda for administrators, a public relations checklist, and eighteen other time-tested tools for every aspect of the merger!

If you are involved in a merger, are contemplating a merger, or simply want to explore your options in a changing legal marketplace, this book will prove an invaluable resource that will save you time, money, and frustrations in the merger process. Written by the recognized worldwide experts in the field, Anatomy of a Law Firm Merger is the one resource you'll turn to again and again.