Target Audience: Library directors, managers, and supervisors
Learning Outcomes:
1. Participants will be able to discuss integration issues such as collection, contracts, staffing, and ILS with an emphasis on the international component.
2. Participants will be able to explain how other firms have managed expansion through opening international offices and their firms' mergers.
Law firms are merging with each other without any slowdown, while others are expanding by opening international offices. Globalization and consolidation are closely tied to a firm's survival, growth, and strategic plan. When large firms merge, the combined firm can boast 3,000+ lawyers with a multitude of time zones, currencies, languages, and cultures. Law firm international expansion can also be a way for smaller firms to establish a regional presence. Regardless, whether the growth involves law firms in the United States and/or those with an international footprint, there are challenges to face since firms have traditionally relied on different fiscal years, accounting systems, management structures, and compensation practices. These are obstacles to overcome before two can be melded into one entity. The program panelists are from firms that have merged or expanded regionally, nationally, and globally. In a panel presentation, they will discuss the challenges they faced when their firms announced the expansion. Participants will learn what worked, what didn't, and what to do differently the next time the "M-word" comes up.