October 2013
Volume 16 Issue 2
www.managingpartner.com
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Merger integration at
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MARKETING MERGER INTEGRATION
CASE STUDY
Countdown
to launch
KEY
TAKEAWAY
POINTS
1
2
3
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Allocate plenty of time and
resources for the proper
integration of the combining firms’
administrative functions. This
includes maintaining extensive
and frequent communication
between the two firms prior to
the merger and ensuring a transition
that is as seamless as possible
for the combining firms’ personnel
post-merger.
Although a merger inherently
contains many challenges, if
such hurdles are confronted
and overcome, the benefits of a
strategically sound combination
can be immense.
Separate the execution items into
three distinct categories: pre-merger
tasks, ‘day one’ tasks and postmerger tasks. Each time period
contains different challenges and
opportunities for integration.
Cultural differences need to be
addressed and overcome in order
for the marketing team to work
together in a truly collaborative
fashion as systems and processes
are streamlined and dual systems
merge into one.
Build a strong working team that
contains members of both merged
firms. The collective marketing team
will have a plethora of tasks to
complete and projects will need to
be efficiently prioritised.
Jeff Berardi and Debra Woodman reveal
how they integrated their firms’ marketing
functions on a tight merger deadline
n 1 January 2013, K&L Gates
merged with Australian firm
Middletons, adding 300 lawyers
to its already vast global platform. The
combined firm now has more than 2,000
lawyers in 48 offices spread across
five continents, as well as the largest
integrated presence in the Asia-Pacific
region of any US-based law firm. Within
the marketing department, a group of
approximately 20 professionals from
the former Middletons firm joined the
broader K&L Gates team to create an
administrative function area with nearly
100 members around the world.
The challenges surrounding the
assimilation of the marketing team were
extensive, requiring numerous individuals
from both organisations to put a great
deal of time and effort into various
merger-related activities. These ongoing
integration efforts, which are expected
to continue for quite some time into the
future, can be loosely grouped into three
distinct categories: pre-merger action
items; ‘day one’ execution items; and postmerger activities.
O
Pre-merger
Although K&L Gates and Middletons
formally combined in January 2013, initial
merger discussions began in the early part
of 2012. As conversations between the two
firms progressed over the ensuing months,
merger due diligence teams were created
to handle the plethora of administrative
issues related to a potential combination.
The teams included chief officers (CMOs,
MANAGING PARTNER, OCTOBER 2013
COOs, CIOs, CFOs and so on) from
each firm, as well as partners specifically
designated to address regional tax issues,
manage M&A deal aspects and overcome
other legal hurdles surrounding the complex
integration of two distinct law firms.
Over time, separate discussions
were established between function area
members for each department, such as
a regularly scheduled call between Jeff
Berardi, chief marketing officer at K&L
Gates and Debra Woodman, director of
business development at Middletons. Given
the significant time zone difference between
Berardi’s primary location of Boston and
Woodman’s primary location of Melbourne,
calls generally needed to take place either
early in the morning or late at night.
An extensive action list was created
and used by the joint marketing teams,
which assigned specific people to drive
key tasks and assisted the two firms in
remaining focused on the urgent action
items required to be completed for ‘day
one’ of the merger. Members of the
integration team were selected based on
their past experience with law firm mergers
and/or their ability to work quickly and
stay focused on key objectives for the
department as a whole.
Because there was a relatively short
turnaround time between the partner
vote and the effective date of the merger,
the pace of activity was expected to be
frenetic. Thus, it was important to identify
people for the project who showed signs
of being able to manage any stresses and
complications along the way.
The integration team maintained and
updated the list regularly, and any issues
with any of the actions were elevated
to the attention of Berardi and Woodman
to address.
On a marketing front, plans
were made in the early
stages around the media
strategy, internal and
external communications,
and business
development strategy
(including cross-selling),
among other areas. The
importance of building a
strong working team that
included members of both
firms for each of these activities
was critical. The collective marketing
team had a myriad of tasks to
complete, and understanding the
priorities was important.
Two of the key priorities
we identified were branding
and cross-selling which,
unsurprisingly, remain topics
of interest for employees
and clients alike. Questions
around the implementation of
the new brand were prolific
pre-merger, not least because
Middletons had successfully
invested a lot in building brand
awareness in the various Australian
markets in which it operated prior
to the merger.
Cross-selling is a key area of
importance for almost all law firms that
maintain more than one office, and
especially so for fully-integrated global
law firms like K&L Gates, so it was natural
“Questions around the
implementation of the new
brand were prolific pre-merger,
not least because Middletons
had successfully invested a lot
in building brand
awareness in the various
Australian markets in
which it operated prior
to the merger”
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MARKETING MERGER INTEGRATION
for a great deal of attention to be placed
on how well the two merging firms could
coordinate client activity. The marketing
team conducted research on our mutual
clients, producing a roster of targets
across jurisdictions and practice
areas, a list that has since
grown into a full cross-selling
initiative spanning the globe.
The defined target
audiences for marketing
activities included existing
clients, potential clients,
competitor law firms (industry
peers and colleagues) and
interested candidates. Once the
importance of brand and business
development was established, there
arose a need to appropriately prioritise
the varying levels of emphasis placed
on external client-facing activities,
and this information needed to be
communicated to other administrative
“Establishing the timing for activities
such as advertising, sponsorships and the
website became even more complicated”
departments. Marketing activities for
recruitment campaigns, for instance, were
not considered to be as time sensitive
as notifying existing clients that the
Middletons brand would be changing to
K&L Gates.
One of the challenges that the
marketing department faced was a
relatively short timeframe between the
vote, which took place in December
2012, and the merger effective date of 1
January 2013. As a result, establishing the
timing for activities such as advertising,
sponsorships and the website became
even more complicated.
As an example, major advertising
campaigns are typically secured many
months before the advertisement is
placed. Once the decision was made
to advertise in The Australian Financial
Review, negotiations had to quickly take
place regarding the advertising period,
which ultimately started in early February.
Printing of materials, branding benefits for
sponsorship and other marketing factors
were handled in an appropriate and
sensitive manner.
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MANAGING PARTNER, OCTOBER 2013
Separate from the joint marketing calls
between Woodman and Berardi, the chief
officers of K&L Gates and Middletons
maintained weekly calls for many months
prior to the merger. An update on
the progress of the activities of each
department was provided on the calls, and
issues – ongoing and potential – were
identified and ironed out where possible.
Equally important, Berardi and other
selected chief officers travelled to Australia
prior to the vote taking place to meet
with local team members and present to
partners and staff on behalf of the firm
regarding various administrative function
areas. The trip was well received and the
office visits assisted in bringing the two
firms closer together.
Day one
There were countless items that needed
to be ready for day one of the merger,
including extensive updates to the K&L
Gates website, the addition of new
lawyer bios, the development of internal/
external communications and the ongoing
integration of the marketing team.
The Middletons website was
redirected to the K&L Gates website on
day one, with information about each of
the four new Australian offices prepared
and ready to go live on the site on the
same day.
The website versions of the bios of
all 300 lawyers in Australia had been
prepared in the short time post-vote and
were uploaded on the site by day one.
The website contains various maps of the
firm’s presence around the world as well
as maps by region, and each of these was
also updated by the date of the merger.
On the internal employee engagement
front, the more than 500 people in the
new offices were greeted with a branded
gift on their desks on the first day of
operation, with a small card welcoming
them to the new firm.
The four offices had access to the
global intranet, while continuing to maintain
a refined version of the previous firm’s
intranet. All kitchens in the four Australian
offices were stocked with newly-branded
mugs, while branded stationery filled
the cupboards and client boardrooms.
Even spine labels for internal folders
were redesigned and ready to replace
the Middletons-branded spine labels on
day one.
“Even spine labels for internal folders
were redesigned and ready to replace
the Middletons-branded spine labels
on day one of the merger”
External communications were also
ready for 1 January, with newly-branded
electronic templates redesigned prior to
the merger and new letterhead paper used
to fill all printers. Client alerts, branded
Legal Insights, were disseminated and
new business development proposals
were prepared in the pre-loaded template
from day one. Signage was replaced in
time for day one. On the media front, two
press releases were disseminated
to key media prior to the
merger, so one final release
was prepared and
released post-vote.
Post-merger
A merger of such
magnitude takes many
months, if not years,
to completely embed.
We were aware of this
from early discussions
and continue to discuss the
extended timeframe that this
might entail. A number of initiatives
have been implemented post-merger to
alleviate some of the discomfort that has
been experienced.
For starters, a video conference
with all global marketing team members
took place two weeks post-merger,
with all offices participating. This
helped to reinforce the close-knit
environment in the marketing team and
the importance of collaboration, despite
the time zone challenges.
In addition, a member of the K&L
Gates marketing team, Bree Metherall,
was embedded in the Australian marketing
team for one month to help encourage
integration between team members. An
Australian national, Metherall had been
living and working in the United States
for nine years, so she was able to serve
as an effective bridge between the two
cultures. Metherall’s main tasks during
her time in the Melbourne office included
guiding team members in Australia around
processes and directing them to the most
appropriate resources across the firm
whenever they had inquiries.
Systems continue to be streamlined
and, in many cases, two distinct systems
were merged into one. The two firms
maintained their own systems for
recording details of outgoing proposals,
as an example, and because the
Middletons system also contained useful
features, adjustments were made
to the K&L Gates system to
incorporate these. Information
about proposals from
the previous six months
was imported from the
Middletons system into
the K&L Gates proposal
tracking database, so
this exercise provided yet
another method of identifying
mutual pursuits. Similarly,
the two firms had different
approaches to the preparation of
proposals to clients, so the superior
aspects of each were adopted in a new
version which was released just before the
merger took place.
Other software tools were
implemented and many were prompted
by the merger. These include a database
to hold global credentials and a client
intelligence tool that adds value to local
and global pursuits.
Internally and externally, marketing
teams are focused on increasing
efficiencies and processes continue to
be tweaked in order to achieve greater
efficiency across the globe. As most time
zones are covered by our 48 offices, an
expectation has arisen that the marketing
department offers a 24/7 service to our
clients, which include both internal lawyers
as well as external clients.
Responsibilities have also been shifted
in order to provide adequate coverage in
areas where our clients are. Cross-border
projects are now in place and some of
these concentrate on developing global
brand messages, supporting industry/
sector approaches and rationalising
systems for incoming lawyers.
Ongoing work
Managing a merger from any perspective
requires a great deal of time and patience.
Efforts to streamline business processes
and to integrate teams within the K&L
Gates marketing department continue,
and such activities are likely to be ongoing
for many more months.
Challenging issues naturally arise along
the way and these can only be properly
resolved with the right level of attention.
For instance, understanding and accepting
that there are vastly different work styles,
especially when a merger crosses cultural
boundaries, is fundamental.
Any pain around the embedding of
teams and systems is almost always
alleviated by increased communication.
Technical workarounds, while not ideal,
are essential while the affected parties
wait for technology and other systems
to merge.
Yet, despite the enormous challenges,
the benefits of a merger can be truly
immeasurable if difficulties that are
encountered throughout the journey are
overcome and the numerous opportunities
that arise as a result of a successful
combination can create a worthwhile
experience for all involved.
Jeff Berardi is global chief marketing
officer and Debra Woodman is
Asia-Pacific director of business
development at K&L Gates
(www.klgates.com)
“The more than 500 people in the new offices
were greeted with a branded gift on their
desks on the first day of operation, with a
small card welcoming them to the new firm”
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