This  highly practical and interactive Law Firm Mergers Masterclass is a recorded event featuring a panel of 10 experts who will guide you through the multidisciplinary complexities and intricacies of mergers. It is a recording of a highly successful conference held in March 2021.

The Masterclass is divided up into two separate, but equally important halves and you can purchase either or both. The first half deals with the process of preparing for a merger and the second covers getting it right post-merger. Each half is half a day

This online recorded Masterclass will be available, direct to your desktop, tablet or smart phone so you can watch it from your office or home wherever you are in the world. 

Tickets for the Masterclass are priced per organisation  so as many of your colleagues as you want from the same organisation can watch it at no extra cost even if they are viewing from different locations or at different times. Prices are as follows:

• £145 + VAT for a half-day per organisation; and
• £250 + VAT for a full day per organisation.

There is a special discounted rate for small law firms of 4 or fewer partners / owners:

• £99 + VAT for a half-day per person; and
• £160 + VAT for a full day per person

Who is it targeted at? Senior Partners, Managing Partners, CEOs, CFO's and other partners and owners of professional firms

First Half: Should you Merge: should you Acquire?

• How to choose a potential merger partner? And how best to respond to an approach
• Negotiating the merger: the principles and pitfalls-
• Valuation, Due diligence & Funding
• Go / No go: When to say Yes and when to say NO – Panel discussion
• Internal politics– making the case to achieve a ‘Yes’ vote: what does the Managing Partner have to do to get it?

Second Half: How to Deliver the Merger’s Value

• Post-merger integration and governance: overview
• Managing the communications and branding the new firm; internally and externally
• Technology: integrating effectively and at pace
• Reward: Bringing two structures together
• Re-structuring - the new organisation structure and people exits-
• Melding the new team- Culture & Colleague
• Premises, suppliers, PI, and cost base

Speakers

Co-Chair: Paul Browne –Møller Institute for Leadership, Churchill College, University of Cambridge

Co-Chair: Peter Scott – Peter Scott Consulting

• Ray Black – Moore Barlow
• Nick Carter-Pegg - BDO
• Alex Kane – Farrer Kane
• David Lynn - CDT Programme Consulting
• David Baskerville - Baskerville Drummond
• Richard Macklin, Global Board and Vice Chair, Dentons to December 2020; Partner Lexington Consultants
• Neville Miles –Lockton Companies LLP
• Mike Mister – Professional Service Firms International
  
• Jan Thornbury – Head of Legal Transformation at EY Law

More about the Speakers

Paul Browne is an expert in professional service firms, combining a wealth of experience in international M&A and post-merger integration with an intellectual drive and curiosity for data. He has lived and worked extensively across Africa, Europe and the Middle East. Following a highly successful career within consulting, banking, and law firms, Paul has been involved with over twenty-five acquisitions and including post-merger integration work at Pinsent Masons. He believes that the importance of managing culture change is often over-looked in post-merger integration. Paul is also a Partner at the Møller Institute for Leadership at the University of Cambridge.

Peter Scott is a solicitor and former Managing Partner of Eversheds London and European offices. He acts as an advisor, trainer and coach to many law firms in relation to their strategic, financial, performance, reward and risk and compliance issues, with a particular focus on helping them to improve their competitiveness through effective performance management. He also acts as a 'discreet mentor' to many managing partners and CEOs. He has particular experience of law firm mergers, including mergers managed and implemented as a managing partner, and currently involvement as a consultant in relation to mergers.

David Baskerville is a seasoned Legal IT specialist. He founded Baskerville Drummond in 2011 and has grown the consultancy to be one of the leading providers of independent strategic advice to UK Law Firms. David has assisted many firms undertaking strategic reviews, system selection, and implementation and is a retained trusted advisor (or Virtual IT Director) for several well-known firms. David is particularly known for his work on complex projects, such as the MAB demerger and for turning-around struggling projects or leading on delivering challenging programs.

Ray Black has worked in the professional services sector for more than 30 years, with both chartered surveyors (as a shareholding Managing Director) and law firms (as an equity-owning Chief Executive) and has successfully undertaken mergers and restructurings in both professions to build on and further develop already successful businesses. In 2006 he initially became COO at Barlow Robbins LLP with responsibility to combine the operations of the two legacy firms created by their recent merger, and following the introduction of ABSs he became a full Equity Partner and the Chief Executive of the firm. He most recently led the firm’s merger negotiations with Moore Blatch which merger completed on 30th April 2020 to form Moore Barlow. The merger created a law firm comprising of 72 Partners, 186 Lawyers and a total headcount of 453 and is now in the top 70 of law firms in the UK by revenue. Ray is currently acting as consultant to the merged firm.

Nick Carter-Pegg  is a Partner and Head of BDO’s Professional Services Group in the UK and has over 20 years experience in advising professional service firms and has an in-depth understanding of them. Nick’s experience includes working with a number of major clients including global professional service firms.

Alex Kane has more than 25 years of experience in PR and communications. He has particular expertise in advising clients in the professional services sector and his clients have included law firms of all types: global players, successful national and regional firms, as well as best-in-class specialists. He has guided clients through communication challenges ranging from international expansions and acquisitions, to mergers and rebrands. His experience spans strategic advice, PR and media, branding, internal communications, social and digital, and crisis comms. He founded Farrer Kane with Beth Farrer in 2013. The agency now counts some of the best-known legal names in the sector among its client-base.

David Lynn.  A collaborative leader with 35+ years of experience to Senior Executive/MD level with a strong focus on driving business and transformation across a range of industries and sectors. David has also held a variety of C-Suite and board roles (including advisory positions) in both the Private and Public Sectors.     He is co-owner and Managing Partner of CDT Programme Consulting, a next generation consultancy business specialising in advisory assignments including business start-ups, turnaround, transformation and cost-saving solutions, restructuring, remediation, risk management, compliance and financial crime prevention. A traditionally trained and qualified corporate lending banker, who then specialised in planning and strategic financial management and leadership roles. Integrity, honesty and transparency are at the heart of his business values and operating style.

Richard Macklin is a member of the Møller Institute at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of the Institute of Coaching at Harvard Medical School. He is also a faculty member with Meyler Campbell, the renowned business coaching school, and chairs its Advisory Board. He was formerly Global Vice Chair at the world’s largest law firm (Dentons), serving for many years on the global board throughout its journey from 164th to the No.1 slot by headcount and locations . Richard also served as Global Client Partner, responsible for handling the firm’s largest multi-national clients and designing the firm’s market-facing strategy. Described in the legal directories as “a corporate heavyweight” and a former Head of his firm’s M&A division, his track record of cross-border M&A work spans over 30 years.

Neville Miles is a Partner and client advocate at Lockton, the world’s largest privately held insurance broker. His responsibilities include overseeing client relationships, advising clients on strategic business issues, and placing professional Indemnity insurance programmes for large law firms. With more than 35 years’ experience in insurance his background allows him to guide companies through the challenging risk management and insurance issues they face. His experience includes designing, facilitating and placing often complex insurance programmes, particularly in the current challenging markets.

Mike Mister is a partner in Professional Service Firms International, the leading European consultancy for professional services firms and a Senior Fellow in the Human Capital Practice at the Conference Board. He works with the leaders of professional service firms to enhance their ability to lead their teams, organisations and themselves. Since 2014 Mike has been consulting full time with a range of professional service firms both in the UK and internationally. His key areas of expertise and interest are at the intersection of strategy, commercial success and the organisation's people agenda. In his last major in-house role Mike was Global Director for Executive Development at EY Global (formerly Ernst & Young Global). Although London based he travelled extensively for over 15 years facilitating the development of partners around the world as the organisation went through a rapid process of globalisation. Mike has an MBA and a BA (Honours) Degree in Psychology. He is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development, a Graduate Member of the British Psychological Society and an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers in the UK. He is the author of numerous articles and case studies including "Ellen Harvey" with Harvard Business School. He also co-authored the best-selling book "How to Lead Smart People" with Arun Singh and published by Profile Books in 2019.

Jan Thornbury is Head of Legal Transformation at EY Law and a change leader who specialises in organisational culture and strategy. She has deep knowledge of the professional services industry. She has designed and delivered successful culture and strategy programmes in 9 law firms, and has worked with FTSE100 GCs on legal function transformation. She has extensive international experience, and deep insights into the challenges of running a culturally diverse business. In over 25 years of consulting, she has built up a wealth of experience and an approach to culture change that has delivered award-winning results. Jan contributes to the latest thinking on organisational purpose and values through her writing and speaking engagements. Her publications in the legal press include a chapter in the IBA’s Leadership for Lawyers series and a recent article, ‘Managing Culture for Merger Success’, in Modern Legal Practice.

The Legal Training Consultancy

The Legal Training Consultancy is a full-service training consultancy with a large portfolio of conferences, courses and trainers. Over the past 23 years we have been responsible for putting together a vast number of law and tax related conferences, webinars, seminars, videos and e-learning modules, altogether more than 1900 events, including very many management related events..