Hildebrandt legal consultants, better known for counting annual mergers among law firms, made a merger announcement today that hits closer to home. Hildebrandt is merging with Baker Robbins & Company, a sister legal consultancy under the business of law group of Thomson Reuters, effective Jan. 1.
Hildebrandt advises law firms, corporate and governmental law departments on management issues, while Baker Robbins focuses on technology and business processes for the same target group. The new company will be called Hildebrandt Baker Robbins.
The announcement comes in the wake of news that Thomson will be cutting 240 jobs in its legal businesses, focused on North America offices.
What the future holds, for Hildebaker and for the law firms it serves, after the jump.
Jim Jones, the current managing director of Hildebrandt, said those layoffs had nothing to do with the business of law division, which is separate from the West legal publishing company. In fact, he said the merger of Hildebrandt and Baker Robbins will likely come with expansion of the legal consulting group on the West Coast. Though business dropped off late last year and early this year as firms postponed projects, things are looking up this fall, Jones said. “We are seeing demand bounce back,” he said. (Jones and current Baker Robbins CEO Brad Robbins told our pals at AmLaw Daily that there will be minimal staff reductions at the new company. Jones told us there are no details about hiring available just yet, as the leaders focus on digesting the merger: “We’re just beginning to look at 2010 business plans.”)
For legal clients, it means a more interdisciplinary approach at a time when so many fundamental business models are changing, Robbins said. He said firms will be using technology in areas that have until recently been ignored. One area he pointed to is alternative billing. “Firms are being called on increasingly to engage in different pricing models,” Robbins said. “To do those successfully means you have to have a way of tracking the profitability of a particular matter and a way of tracking resources as the project goes on.” Most firms don’t have the systems in place to do that, added Jones.
The newly combined firm — with 120 global consultants — will be managed jointly by Robbins and Jones. Hildebrandt founder Brad Hildebrandt will continue in a senior leadership role focusing on client relationships and global initiatives.
— Petra Pasternak
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