Legal industry authority Hildebrandt International reports that law firm merger activity is at an all-time high, with nearly 60 firm mergers in 2006. Mergers offer numerous benefits but also pose significant challenges. In addition to traversing a complex conflicts review process, firms must also integrate their operations to enable effective administration of and collaboration across the joint entity.
The conflicts challenge facing merging firms is burdensome, but manageable. In the context of a merger, firms that identify conflicts may need to demonstrate strong ethical wall protections in order to secure waivers necessary to retain adverse clients.
More challenging is the need to combine infrastructure across the newly-joined organization, standardize business processes, and educate and train end users. All while minimizing attorney disruptions.
Adding pressure to an already complicated situation, firm administrative and IT organizations typically experience the unwelcome scenario of having to resolve these complex challenges while facing high expectations, demanding end users and limited time and resources. Importantly, unlike the conflicts process, merger integration is not something firms do routinely. Too frequently, it can take years to fully integrate merged organizations.
IntApp offers a straightforward solution for connecting legal IT infrastructure. Employed by several firms during high-profile, large scale mergers, Integration Builder allows organizations to address numerous technical challenges facing combining firms. It allows firms to synchronize data across applications such as accounting systems immediately and helps firms streamline application migrations and reconcile business processes across the organization.
