Yesterday on JDJournal an article was published in which a recruiter explains why Big Law is so aggressively gobbling up anything that moves.

The author (with a link to her own report on legal market consolidation) writes that more and more firms are choosing mergers as a strategy for survival. Economic pressure, the desire to increase client numbers and production capacity, and the need for comprehensive service — all of this has turned the market into territory dominated by large packs, where on your own you simply won’t make it.

Anzheli writes that organic growth now seems too slow and risky. While you spend years building your own practice, competitors will buy a ready-made team with clients and experience in a single weekend. On top of that, your best lawyers are steadily moving to bigger firms because they want better bonuses and broader opportunities.

In short, the mid-market segment has found itself in an extinction zone. They’re too big to be nimble boutiques and too small to compete with the giants on technology. Working “the old way” is simply no longer profitable.

Besides the desire to grab more desks in the open-plan office, there’s another reason pushing partners to merge. Not long ago PwC wrote that it’s all about industrial-scale AI financing, which is prompting firms to radically reallocate capital. About a third of all deals in 2025 happened purely because of AI technologies. Everyone is pouring trillions into infrastructure, and that is absorbing funds that previously went to organic growth.

So next time you see partners from two different firms whispering in a corner at an event, be prepared that they’re not discussing the springiness of the sofas, nor even the VAKS hearing on Yermak. Tomorrow you may wake up to find that your mid-sized galley has been swallowed (though this is unlikely to increase your personal space in the open-plan office).

Welcome to the age of corporate leviathans.

And if you haven’t yet read the interview about how Inly merged into Ukraine’s largest firm (Asters) – click here.

Anastasiia Menshykova

Dima Gadomsky