MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS
Mergers and acquisitions ("M&As") remain a core growth strategy for firms looking to expand into new markets or territories, gain a competitive edge, or acquire new technologies and skillsets. M&As are especially prevalent in the professional services space, where a rapidly changing economy and marketplace keep the pressure on.
So, what is the impact of all this activity? More importantly, does an M&A make sense for your firm? Here at Bernard LoVerde & Company, LLC ("BJL"), we study the M&A market for service providers in the spaces in which we concentrate — the factors that drive premium valuations, high growth, and durable client relationships.
There are essentially two kinds of mergers and acquisitions: strategic and financial. A financial merger or acquisition is pursued, as the name implies, for financial reasons — often to pick up quick cash or as an investment. Strategic mergers and acquisitions solve a different business problem: the acquirer is looking to grab a new product line, add facilities, enter a new market, or gain expertise and intellectual property. For professional services firms, a strategic M&A is often about gaining credibility, adding intellectual firepower, or shifting the balance of power in a particular market. The bottom line is a strategic merger yields value for both the acquired and the acquiring firm — a genuine "win-win" for both parties.
The market today: bigger firms getting bigger
Law firm consolidation has accelerated again after the post-pandemic dip, but the character of the activity has changed. Where the 2018–2019 wave was defined by a flood of small, opportunistic tie-ups, the current cycle is increasingly driven by large-firm combinations designed to absorb the rising cost of technology — AI investment chief among them. Six merger deals involving two firms with 100 or more partners closed in 2025 alone, a pace that reflects a market where scale itself has become a competitive necessity. As one industry consultant put it, there is a direct relationship between firm size and billing rates, and overhead climbs with size too — but profit climbs further still.
This year's headline deals illustrate the point: McDermott Will & Emery's combination with Schulte Roth & Zabel created a firm of more than 1,750 lawyers, while Winston & Strawn's merger with Taylor Wessing's U.K. operations built a transatlantic firm of more than 1,400 lawyers spanning litigation, transactions, IP, and private wealth. The largest players are setting the market's rates and, in the process, its terms — leaving mid-size and boutique firms to decide whether to compete on scale, double down on niche expertise, or find a strategic partner.
Consolidation in default services: two deals worth watching
Closer to home for our client base in mortgage banking, creditors' rights, and default servicing, two recent combinations show the same forces at work at a different scale.
Effective July 1, 2026, McCalla Raymer Leibert Pierce, LLP ("MRLP") announced its combination with Scott & Corley, P.A., a South Carolina-based firm. The deal brings MRLP's geographic footprint to 17 states stretching from the East Coast to the West Coast, and gives the firm its first foothold in South Carolina. Notably, MRLP structured the deal to preserve continuity: the Scott & Corley team continues operating from its Columbia office, with personnel expected to remain in place, and the firm anticipates alignment of personnel, workflows, technology platforms, and compliance controls with no disruption to client service or file-level operations. That is a textbook strategic acquisition — MRLP didn't need Scott & Corley's balance sheet; it needed the firm's decades of standing with South Carolina's GSE and mortgage-banking clients, acquired wholesale rather than built from scratch.
Around the same time, BDF Law Group — the Addison, Texas-based default servicing platform — completed its acquisition of KML Law Group, P.C., a Pennsylvania and New Jersey creditors' rights and default firm founded in 1981. The deal expands BDF's default servicing footprint into Pennsylvania and New Jersey, two states where a national platform gains little by starting cold. As one KML attorney described it, the combination joins two corporate cultures focused heavily on process innovation, strict statutory adherence, and client communication, folding KML's regional presence into BDF's broader multi-state infrastructure.
Both deals share a pattern worth noting for firms in this space: the acquirer wasn't buying headcount. It was buying licensed presence, regulatory relationships, and institutional trust in a state it didn't already own — the kind of asset that takes years to build organically and can be absorbed in a single transaction.
What this means for your firm
The forces behind these deals haven't changed in kind since 2018 — technology, fee pressure, and client concentration are still the drivers — but they have changed in degree. AI-driven document review and workflow automation, which was a novelty in 2018, is now a genuine cost center that rewards scale. At the same time, default servicing and creditors' rights work remains geographically fragmented by licensing and GSE approval, which is exactly why single-state and regional firms continue to be attractive acquisition targets for national platforms looking to fill in their map.
For firms weighing their own position — whether as a potential acquirer or a potential target — the questions haven't changed: What does the other side actually need that you have? Is that need better solved by a merger than by a referral relationship, a lateral hire, or organic growth? And will the combination preserve the client relationships and institutional knowledge that made the target valuable in the first place, or erode them in integration?
We at BJL continue to track the M&A market for professional services providers in the sectors where we concentrate, and we have parties actively looking at strategic opportunities on a national basis. Feel free to reach out, and we can confidentially explore the options available to your firm.