The Texas Lawbook highlighted the success of Foley & Lardner and Gardere Wynne Sewell’s 2018 combination in the article, “Three Firms, Three Mergers – Measuring Success After 15 Months.”
The article looked back at three mergers of Texas-based law firms with national law firms on the occasion of the 15-month anniversary of each of the mergers and noted how each had been successful in its own right.
Partner Holly O’Neil said the combined firm has already been reaping the fruits of its labor regarding revenues, generating new business and attracting lateral hires. “It’s been an exhilarating year,” she said.
O’Neil noted that the firm implemented a program the day of the merger called “But For,” which measured achievements that would not have happened “but for” the merger. Because of the merger, lawyers at Foley Gardere worked on 125 new matters that billed 15,000 hours and generated more than $10 million during the first 12 months of the combined firms – all of which is directly attributed to the merger. In addition, the firm reports that legacy Gardere lawyers worked on scores of matters for existing Foley clients and legacy Foley lawyers did the same for existing Gardere clients – a total that accounted for more than 40,000 hours billed during the first year of the merger.
“We had all the synergies on paper, but you never know until you take action,” O’Neil said. “Legacy Gardere has definitely benefited from the strong organizational structure and larger platform that Foley had in place.”
