After the completion of Dinsmore's merger with Wooden McLaughlin earlier this month, which resulted in the firm opening three new offices and adding 47 attorneys in Indiana, The Indiana Lawyer, spoke with Misha Rabinowitch, who is the office managing partner in Indianapolis and Bloomington. Read what he had to say about the motivations behind and benefits of the merger below.

Misha Rabinowitch ... sees the merger as a “tribute to all the positive economic development initiatives” that are happening in the state.

“Whether it’s in health care, life sciences, logistics, information technology or any other business segment, they are thriving here to the point where a national law firm of the tradition, depth and sophistication of Dinsmore wants to be in Indiana,” he said.

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Rabinowitch explained the workload had been increasing to the point where his firm either needed to bring on additional lawyers or join another firm.

With Dinsmore, Wooden saw the opportunity to benefit from having a deeper bench and broader geographic reach, especially in the practice areas of litigation, real estate and commercial finance. In addition, Wooden could offer clients services in practice areas it did not cover such as bankruptcy, publicly traded securities and more substantial mergers and acquisitions work.

“I think because of the growth of our clients, it was incumbent upon us to grow the firm,” Rabinowitch said. “… We did not set out to get bigger for the sake of getting bigger.”

Wooden is also hoping the merger with Dinsmore will enable the Indiana offices to become more diverse. Rabinowitch said Dinsmore has a number of successful diversity initiatives that he would like to see incorporated into the Hoosier firm. The national presence alone that Dinsmore offers will provide experiences and opportunities that will attract more top candidates.

“With the larger footprint, I think we’re better able to compete for diverse talent, whether it’s from law schools here in Indiana or around the country,” he said.

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The Wooden McLaughlin merger demonstrates combinations are a courtship and firms have to be compatible. Rabinowitch said joining with Dinsmore was attractive because the firms have similar cultures.

Wooden McLaughlin attorneys knew and were familiar with the work of Dinsmore lawyers. But most importantly, both firms valued collegiality and collaboration.

“We felt like we have, over a long period of time, developed a culture that we really appreciate and enjoy and want to maintain,” Rabinowitch said. "Our clients, and especially our lawyers and staff, folks who work here, have become accustomed to how we respond and the collegial way we work together with our clients. We are protective of that, and we felt like from what we observed that we could maintain that.”

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