The new year came with more than just the standard freshness for Ballard Spahr, as Lane Powell formally merged with the firm, officially creating a firm spanning 18 U.S. offices that house more than 750 attorneys.
For Lane Powell, it’s the culmination of years of effort from Barbara Duffy and the firm, who was its president prior to the merger. She told Law Week that Lane Powell wanted to grow materially and outside of the northwest, following the announcement of the merger in September 2024.
It’s also the realization of a goal set forth by Peter Michaud, Ballard Spahr’s chair, who wanted to expand the firm westward.
The firms come together in the new year from a position of strength, with both Lane Powell and Ballard Spahr reporting record years to close out 2024. Duffy told Law Week that they couldn’t feel better about the outlook for the combined firm.
“The integration process started many months ago, but we’ve already seen combined opportunities and abilities to serve clients in areas that we couldn’t before,” Duffy said. “We come into 2025 with a real sense of optimism and confidence. We came off our best year ever in terms of all of the law firm vitals … in part, because we’ve just had so much more to offer in the last half of the year.”
Michaud echoed Duffy’s sense of optimism and excitement, and he said that it was fun to watch as the people of the two firms got to know each other in the fall.
“Now that the combination has occurred, there’s a lot of positive energy and excitement to move forward as one firm,” Michaud said. “We’re really looking forward to 2025.”
One group that had a busy few months leading up to the merger was the firm’s business professionals.
“I’ve been so impressed with them, all of them from both the legacy firms, they have been working together literally every day since we announced this combination in September,” Michaud said.
But it’s not just the business professionals who’ve been hard at work; the attorneys of the legacy firms were also busy leading into the new year.
“On our legal practice side, we have had many meetings, practice groups that have met with the combined firm,” Michaud said. “We had to be careful. We couldn’t share confidential client information before we were combined, so we were cautious about that but we did start to get to know each other in our practices and what each firm could offer the other firm.”
Now, with the merger official, the block is no longer in the way, and Michaud said that they can now start to focus on and address their individual client needs.
While Michaud and Duffy said there was excitement across all of the firm’s practice areas, they did note a few areas in particular where they foresee significant benefits for the attorneys.
Duffy said that the practice areas of media and entertainment, white collar practice and investigation, healthcare, antitrust and securities were all places where the attorneys from the legacy firm were looking forward to working with their counterparts.
Michaud noted that both firms have strong private client service practices, and he’s also excited for the future of the consumer financial service practice, which includes a Denver component.
“In 2024, we had four new attorneys join our Denver office in that area … and having that boots-on-the-ground help in Denver, we’re hoping is going to help establish more of a consumer financial service practice out in the western offices,” Michaaid said.
But the Denver office will not just be assisting the offices further west. Michaud told Law Week that there’s more growth planned for Denver.
“A lot of growth is out west, in areas like Denver, Seattle, Phoenix, and so as we have current clients who, as they expand west, they like to see that we have boots-on-the-ground offices and talent,” Michaud said. He added that the firm is very committed to its Denver and Boulder offices.
There were also a few areas in particular that strike the firm’s interest in Colorado, including consumer financial services, litigation, labor and employment, mergers and acquisitions and emerging companies venture capital.
While both Duffy and Michaud hope it’ll be another record year and are working to make that happen, they’re both also focused on making sure that the two firms truly become one.
“It takes hard work, it takes a lot of time and dedication on the part of all of our attorneys and business professionals,” Michaud said. “I think it will be a growing year for us as we start to work as one firm and learn more about each other and figure out ways that we can work together better.”
Keeping the existing and new attorneys at Ballard Spahr happy will be another focus of the duo, which Michaud noted is already a round-the-clock focus for him.
“What I want to do is make our firm the kind of place where, if an attorney or business professional looks at the phone and sees that a recruiter is calling them, that they don’t even pick up the phone and talk to that recruiter,” Michaud said.
To make that happen, Michaud says he works to make sure that the people at the firm are happy, that they feel their careers are rewarding and fulfilling and that their voices are heard.
“That’s the way I operated last year and [how] I’ll operate this year, but I do have to acknowledge that with new colleagues, people I don’t know as well, it’ll be even more important to make sure that they know they are important to us,” Michaud said.
Duffy echoed the sentiments from Michaud, and she noted how important it is to make sure that the members of the firm feel heard and respected and that their perspectives are considered.
“We want to be in a position where they look at our combined firm, Ballard Spahr, as a good choice, a good choice for their career, for their families, for their clients, and that takes a lot of hard work and time,” said Duffy.