The Draw back Of A Biglaw Merger: Legacy Cadwalader Timekeepers Get A Not-So-Enjoyable Homework Assignment

Hogan Lovells Cadwalader formally launched July 1, and agency management has wasted no time telling anybody who’ll hear how easily the combination goes.

Just this week, Law.com’s American Lawyer reported the agency is transferring quick on its Washington, D.C., integration too, naming workplace management as a part of a plan to mix the 2 legacy footprints shortly reasonably than let the method drag.

And CEO Miguel Zaldivar has been on a little bit of a victory lap. Talking to Bloomberg Law concerning the agency’s progress ambitions in New York, he made clear he sees the merger as the start, not the tip, of a progress story. “Having over 300 lawyers in New York makes you a top 25 or top 27 firm on Wall Street, but this is only a step in the right direction,” he mentioned. “With the Cadwalader name coming back to life in such a meaningful way, we’re going to grow more in New York. We’re already attracting more and more talent.”

Growth speak, new workplace management, an formidable CEO doing press — every little thing concerning the public rollout of Hogan Lovells Cadwalader has been engineered to mission confidence and momentum.

But in accordance with Above the Law tipsters, the view from the affiliate ranks tells a unique story, no less than in terms of timekeeping.

An electronic mail despatched to timekeepers and obtained by ATL instructs legacy Cadwalader staff to return and evaluate each time entry from January by June — six months’ value — as a part of the programs integration.

As one tipster put it to ATL, “Can you imagine Cadwalader employees having to check 6 months work of 6 minute increment time entries? WTF.”

There are a helluva lot of time entries in six months, every one now apparently topic to a retroactive audit as a result of the legacy companies’ programs didn’t speak to one another cleanly.

The mixed agency has settled on HLC Intapp as its unified timekeeping system, and whereas the inner communication describes it as “similar to the Cadwalader version,” it notes there are variations important sufficient to require motion. The first two weeks of July have been dedicated to coaching periods to get timekeepers up to the mark on the brand new platform. But coaching is simply the beginning, legacy Cadwalader timekeepers have been given a deadline of July 20 to return by all of their entries within the new system and make sure every little thing transferred over accurately.

It’s a reminder that “largest law firm merger in history” headlines are one factor, and getting two companies’ back-office programs to truly perform as one is one other.

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Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the most effective, so please join along with her. Feel free to electronic mail her with any suggestions, questions, or feedback and comply with her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Bluesky @Kathryn1