Content area
Full Text
A Q&A with Joel Cooperman
Somefirms have had remarkable success with mergers.
One managing partner explains why.
Unfortunately, many mergers unravel, or never quite achieve the success hoped for. Contrast those to the successful mergers, which more often than not have a structured, bestpractices approach. In a Q&A. Joel Cooperman, managing partner and cofounder of New York City-based Citrin Cooperman & Company, a firm with a proven merger track record, details what his firm does to ensure success.
PA: How many firms have merged in, or been acquired. In Citrin Cooperman & Company?
Joel Cooperman. Our firm was founded in 1979, and we have completed 19 mergers, acquisitions, or admissions. For liability reasons, most of our deals have been done as admissions. These deals have all worked out well for both sides. The partners have stayed a long lime, grown their practices, and have made a lot more money.
While we don't necessarily go after niches, typically incoming firms' niches embellish our existing practices. However, in many cases, incoming firms create new niches. Two examples for our firm are high-end restaurants and funeral homes. Recent deals are Margold, Ersken & Wang (real estate): four partners from the New York firm Weinick Sanders Leventhal (apparel): Shulman, Cohen, Furst & Co., New York (a general practice), and J. Bryan & Company (also a general practice, and Bernhardt, Karlitz, Hayden & DeCruze in 2001. (litigation support and valuation).
PA: What is your overall approach in considering a candidate?
JC: The first thing that we look at is the quality of the people, particularly at the partner level. We want to make sure that they are going to fit the profile of the kind of partner we want to have at Citrin Cooperman. Without prioritizing, we want them to be technically competent, hard working, team-driven, and understand their value to clients and to the firm. And we have to like each other, and feel that they'll work well with our existing partners and staff. If the magic isn't there from the start, we won't do the deal.
Then wc look at the clients, and whether they have the right profile, both in terms of age and risk. Are they in industries that we don't really want to be...