The news that Barclay Damon and Shapiro, Lifschitz & Schram (SLS) have combined was covered by Law360 Pulse in “Inside Barclay Damon’s ‘Almost Too Good to Be True’ Merger.” The article notes Barclay Damon’s history of merging with smaller firms and hiring groups of laterals from a single firm. In combining with SLS, Barclay Damon has expanded its footprint in Washington DC.
About the merger, Connie Cahill, Barclay Damon’s managing partner, said that things are already going well. “I think two months from now, we’re all going to say to each other, ‘Oh my goodness, I can’t believe it’s only been two months,’ because it’s going to feel like we’ve been one firm for a very long time,” she said.
Connie and Steve Schram, a co-founder and principal at SLS and the co-leader of the new office in Washington DC, participated in a Q&A with Law360 Pulse. They answered questions about why the firms align and the qualities of an ideal merger. Connie noted that SLS’s “group of very high-quality lawyers doing very high-quality, sophisticated work” was “just what [Barclay Damon was] looking for in the DC market. . .” and attributed the success of the merger to Barclay Damon’s adept administrative team and to the experienced people who will be spending time assisting in SLS’s integration. Steve said, “There’s a shared culture between the two firms. Everybody has been incredibly generous with their time and very patient with us as we learned some new things. It’s just part of establishing that we believe in the importance of relationships.”
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