Prioritize Data Integrity Over Software Models
Josh Kalish, legal consultant and managing partner with Law Firms of the Future, says data is one of the most valuable assets a firm has, second only to its talent, and it’s imperative to treat it as such during a merger. This includes everything from client names and billing codes to financial history.
Your organization can have the most impressive billing software or AI platform supporting operations, but if system governance is lacking, will it really help to integrate a second firm onto the platform?
“One of the mistakes I see firms making when they try to combine is trying to look at who's got the best mousetrap, and they’re comparing functionality,” Kalish says. “What we need is to look at it through the lens of data integrity. Which firm has the cleanest, best-managed data?”
This can be a problem among companies that are quick to purchase tech, but flail when it comes to implementation, a 2026 Deloitte survey of chief legal officers found. While Deloitte reports 79% of legal departments have increased AI spend year over year, “training, transformation (including process redesign and new ways of working), data and knowledge ranks considerably lower.” Specifically, quality assurance (QA) is an area that lacks, with only 24% of respondents having defined QA frameworks in place at their organizations. As use cases for AI continue to advance, such as with agentic workflow models, error costs will also increase, the report says.
Evaluate Workflows’ Efficiencies and Outcomes
The tech merger process between two firms is about more than deciding which platform has the most impressive bells and whistles – it’s about evaluating the best way to deliver the work and extract value, both for the firm and its clients.
“The most important investment decision for legal leaders, whether [l]egal departments or at [l]aw firms, is not which platform to procure,” Deloitte’s survey report says. “It is ensuring the full balanced portfolio of investment across technology, people, data and transformation.”
Your organization can have the most impressive billing software or AI platform supporting operations, but if system governance is lacking, will it really help to integrate a second firm onto the platform?
Kalish agrees. Your biggest cost savings won’t necessarily be shedding or merging duplicate systems. It will be in identifying which firm has the better billing outcomes, from recouping client costs to profitability margins.
“The actual technology system in some ways is just a unit factor. You may have individual systems that are great, but they don’t integrate well,” Kalish says. “You can’t look at isolated systems. You have to look at the efficiency of the entire workflow.”
Optimize Existing Tech for Change Management
When Troutman Pepper Locke went through the merger process in 2025, the firm leaned on its
proprietary AI platform Athena to support change management across the expanded 1,600-attorney organization.
Will Gaus, Troutman Pepper Locke’s chief knowledge management and innovation officer, told Law.com how the firm leveraged information retrieval technology within Athena to serve up specific answers related to the merger. The firm credits Athena with improving workflow efficiency and decision making, in addition to supporting legal research, document analysis and strategic insights. The firm also credits Athena with streamlining the merger process itself — an example of two legacy firms optimizing and rallying around one set of tools.
Firms need to consider asset structure, in addition to where those assets will live, what they will represent and who will manage them.
As a bonus: Troutman Pepper Locke built an award-winning tool on top of Athena to help identify colleagues with specific experience and credentials. The firm says the tool, called Experience Connect, has decreased what Troutman Pepper Locke calls “Pardon the Interruption” emails by 30%.
Empower a Qualified Leader to Vet Tech Changes
Merging tech stacks requires high-stakes decision making that goes beyond picking the favorite tool. Firms need to consider asset structure, in addition to where those assets will live, what they will represent and who will manage them, Kalish says. “When two firms merge,” he says, “it is a true test of their business leadership and a real test of their change management capabilities.”
But more specifically, according to DeChant, someone needs to have oversight of the process to help ensure any tech-based decisions or changes are right for the firm. This doesn’t mean disregarding input from senior IT and operations professionals; however, DeChant says, empowering someone like your general counsel to vet decisions and their impact on legal, privacy and cybersecurity risks is key. This can also help with advancing decisions into action.
“It’s not so much about choosing the right people to be in the room,” DeChant says. “It’s about how you are vesting authority in the correct people.”
Firm mergers can be both emotional and complicated, especially when dealing with the streamlining of legacy tools and systems. But at the end of the day, it comes down to output, revenue capture and reliable data.
”You’re not auditing individual systems,” Kalish says. “You’re doing your due diligence on how work gets done.”
