Insights & Resources

In the following excerpt from the Pittsburgh Business Times article by Patty Tascarella, Lori Carpenter offers her insight on recent Pittsburgh law firm merger and acquisition activity.

"Lori Carpenter, CEO of recruitment firm Carpenter Legal Search, said the local movement is part of a broader, regional market consolidation trend, spurred by the need for scale and succession issues.
 

Pittsburgh has a large number of small to midsize legacy firms with aging leadership," she said. "I think succession plans are uneven, and firms have rising operational costs. Those are things that drive consolidation. They're saying there is power in numbers. It's hard enough to keep up with the regular day-to-day, then you put AI on top of that and what the firms need to do in order to be viable to their clients. Between that and succession planning, they don't have a lot of options unless they're willing to commit a large amount of capital.

Merging into a bigger firm, she said, adds more immediate revenue and helps the smaller firm deepen industry specialization without the cost of large-scale hiring."

Read the entire article here: Pittsburgh law firms see merger surge in early 2026