There were 20 new law firm combinations announced in the United States in the second quarter of 2019, according to Altman Weil’s MergerLine, falling slightly below reported numbers at the same time in previous years. In total, 47 deals were announced by mid-year.

So far in 2019, the volume of combinations has declined 10 percent since this time last year due to a slowdown in larger deals, https://files.constantcontact.com/cb194b59701/a7e4c9bb-7d0a-464a-b88c-f8d2314ab6a6.pdf An average of five acquisitions of firms with 20 or more lawyers was present during each quarter in 2017 and 2018. But in the first six months of 2019, there have been just three mid-sized and large combinations.

“It may seem counter-intuitive, but we’re actually seeing increased interest in large deals behind the scenes,” Altman Weil principal Tom Clay said in a statement. “However, the larger and more complex a combination is, the more slowly it is likely to progress and that can cause a temporary dip in the deal flow.”

The largest combination of the quarter was a rare merger of equals, the report noted. Seattle-based law firms Foster Pepper and Garvey Schubert, each with less than 100 lawyers, announced a merger to form Foster Garvey, a new Pacific Northwest regional firm.

Three international acquisitions were also announced in the second quarter of 2019. Among those, the 2,000-lawyer, New York-based international firm Greenberg Traurig acquired 39-lawyer Santa Maria Studio Legale in Milan, establishing the firm’s first Italian office. Additionally, mega-firm Dentons is set to add 21-lawyer MawereSibanda in Harare, Zimbabwe, and 13-lawyer Fisher Jeffries in Adelaide, Australia.

Half of the acquisitions in the second quarter occurred among small firms in the Southern region of the country, with only 10 percent of total acquisitions taking place in the Midwest. The largest Southern acquisition was made by AmLaw 200 firm GrayRobinson, which added to its Florida footprint with Thompson Sizemore, a nine-lawyer labor and employment boutique firm in Tampa.

The average acquired firm size settled at 11 lawyers across 20 acquired firms. The average acquirer size reached roughly 1,150 lawyers.

No Indiana-based law office participated in any merger in 2018 or in the first quarter of 2019. Since 2017, the movement of combinations involving Hoosier firms reported by Altman Weil’s MergerLine has slowed to a crawl.

Practitioners and parents alike now have access to updated child support calculators, the Indiana Supreme Court announced Tuesday.

The new calculators were updated to comply with House Enrolled Act 1520, which changes the conditions of terminating a parent’s child support duty.

Under the law, which took effect July 1, a new exception was created to the rule that child support obligations end when a child turns 19. The newly added exception, inserted as subsection (a)(4) of Indiana Code section 31-16-6-6, allows a child support duty to continue if “(t)he child is a full-time student in a secondary school…and a parent or guardian of the child files notice under subsection (c) advising the court that the child continues or will continue to be enrolled in secondary school.”

If those conditions are met, child support will continue until, and terminate upon, the child’s graduation from secondary school.

The new calculators in compliance with this change are available online at courts.in.gov/childsupport. 

The newly updated version for practitioners is intended to provide judges, lawyers, social workers and other professionals who commonly estimate support with a simple calculator for quick data entry. The parents’ version provides extra instructions.

Both updated calculators were designed to be used on various screen sizes and include a new feature that keeps a running tally of the child support amount. The tally feature aims to show how financial information entered affects the amount.

With the new changes, the formerly downloadable child support calculator for Windows is considered obsolete and should no longer be used, the Supreme Court said. Courts are encouraged to stop accepting forms created with that calculator, which include the words “Downloaded Practitioners” in the lower right corner of the form.

Last year, roughly $850 million in child support was collected and paid to Hoosier parents. Child support calculators were used by more than 125,000 people in the last year and are designed to be compliant with state law and the Indiana Child Support Guidelines.

Indiana child support calculators are developed and maintained by the Indiana Office of Judicial Administration, Trial Court Technology division, and the Indiana Judicial Conference Domestic Relations Committee.