Merger activity in the legal world is ‘rampant’, with more deals predicted in the next year than in the past 25, a leading consultant predicted last week.

Chris Frederiksen, chairman of the 2020 Innovation Group, said that mergers are happening because the profession’s three main underpinnings – conveyancing, legal aid and wills and trusts – have been ‘yanked out’. As a result, ‘the number of practising solicitors making a decent living will reduce significantly’, he told the 360 Legal Group annual conference in Coventry.

While every firm looking to sell attracts 20 buyers, this will change as ‘we get into more difficult times’. Frederiksen recommended that acquisitive firms seek out ‘bolt-on’ practices rather than standalone ones. These are easily integrated, allowing for overheads to be eliminated and staff numbers reduced.

Steve Billot, a director of BDO Stoy Hayward, said he had seen some ‘horribly, badly done mergers... Just doubling in size doesn’t sort out the problems’. He advocated outright take-overs rather than consensual mergers as, otherwise, it can be difficult to drive through the necessary changes.

Speakers also urged firms to deal with underperforming partners. ‘Get rid of the wasters today,’ said Andrew Woolley, senior partner of pioneering virtual law firm Woolley & Co. Frederiksen said such partners were usually the source of financial pressures.

Viv Williams, managing director of the 360 Legal Group, said the burden of Solicitors Regulation Authority compliance would encourage some disciplines to move outside the profession. ‘I suspect a lot of lawyers [handling unreserved legal work] will choose to go out of the rules and be a limited company,’ he added, pointing as an example to the competition that employment lawyers face from unregulated employment advisers.