Is it time to wave goodbye to this firm, or will a merger partner come to its rescue?
Last month, we reported on a Boston midsized firm that had been virtually ransacked by Biglaw firms looking for attorneys to fill their new offices in Beantown. At the time, Burns & Levinson was gauging its merger prospects after having lost about 50 attorneys, including partners, counsel, associates, and patent agents. What’s on the firm’s agenda now?
Burns & Levinson is still on the hunt for a merger partner, but prospects are looking a bit bleak. The American Lawyer has additional details:
[W]ith 10 more years on a lease of 100,000 square feet and an aging partnership with several rate-constrained practices, Burns & Levinson might need a middle-market merger partner in search of a Boston office to keep going in its current form.
“The primary sell would be for a firm not in Boston looking for a beachhead,” said Boston-based Major, Lindsey & Africa partner Robert Zinn. “There are still many excellent attorneys at B&L who could potentially provide a cornerstone and establish a foothold into an ultra competitive and very incestuous legal market.”
Phil Morimoto, CEO and founder of Boston Executive Search Associates, told Am Law that “everyone is talking about it and kind of shaking their heads,” and that “[i]t’s sad to see an institution come apart at the seams.” He added that Burns & Levinson had “kind of been picked over,” so he wasn’t sure if there would be “much in the way of value for other firms to consider at this point.” On top of that, there may also be some issues with the firm’s partnership:
Potential suitors will also be looking at the future of Burns & Levinson’s partnership, where Massachusetts, Maine and Rhode Island bar association records indicate the median bar admission year is 1986. Whereas 12 partners have been practicing for more than 40 years, just eight partners have fewer than 20 years of experience.
“Most people who are left there are fairly senior with not a lot of clients who other firms are looking for,” Morimoto said. “Other firms are looking for the next generation of lawyers to add.”
Something else that may give potential merger partners pause is the fact that Burns & Levinson has a decade left on an existing 15-year lease in a space that Am Law reports is about double the size of the industry’s average on square feet per lawyer.
In a statement, Paul Mastrocola, Burns & Levinson’s managing partner, noted that the firm is in the process of “exploring and weighing its options,” but did not offer any specifics for the sake of confidentiality of their merger talks.
Best of luck to Burns & Levinson during this critical juncture in time, as its future may depend on the next moves that are made.
Merger Prospects Alive But Dwindling for Burns & Levinson [American Lawyer]
Earlier: Midsize Boston Firm Seeks Merger Partner After Losing Nearly 50 Lawyers To Biglaw In Mass Lateral Moves
Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on X/Twitter and Threads or connect with her on LinkedIn.
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