45 minutes of content, 15 for questions. Three acts: what PE is and why it's here, what your firm is worth and how to move that number, and what PE does to everyone else. Leads and timing sit above each slide; notes sit below. Rows marked "Option" are alternatives that don't appear in the live deck.
For the live talk, open Speaker view on your laptop. It opens the audience window for screen sharing and keeps the notes, next slide and timer on your screen.
Will private equity do the same to personal injury?
More than ten deals in a year. One fund alone has backed six PI firms since January.
Rainwater, Holt & Sexton becomes Orion Legal's sixth PE-backed partner firm
Bottaro Injury Lawyers joins Orion as Uplift Investors closes a $670M fund
John Foy & Associates partners with Uplift's Orion Legal
Morgan & Morgan hires JPMorgan to explore a $1B+ minority stake sale
Hughes & Coleman joins Orion Legal
Rafi Law Group launches a $450M MSO with $125M of private equity, reportedly from Fortress
Dudley DeBosier founds Orion Legal with Uplift Investors
Litigation funder Certum launches an MSO for mass tort firms
The Private Equity Legal Alliance launches to match law firms with investors
Burford Capital says it will explore investing directly in law firms
A Fortress-tied fund is revealed to own 20% of Esquire Law
Certum launches an MSO for mass tort firms
Dudley DeBosier partners with Uplift Investors
Rafi Law Group launches a $450M MSO with $125M of PE
The value of Rafi Law Group's new management company, backed by $125M of private equity.
Also this year: Dudley DeBosier (Louisiana) and Certum (mass tort).
Whether or not you ever sell, private equity is now setting the price of every PI firm in America.
Intake · Case management · Medical records · Demands · Settlement · Litigation
Typical hold: three to seven years. The money comes from pensions, endowments and family offices, and it has to go back to them on schedule.
Fund size sets deal size. Most regional firms sit in the lower middle market: $10–100M of enterprise value.
National distribution and pricing power. And the illusion of choice: all of these are AB InBev.
Every label fights for the same space. Customers are loyal to the bottle, not the maker. Even great wineries earn mediocre returns.
Tens of thousands of local firms. Mediocre returns, despite individual stars.
Five to ten platforms with national brands. 20%+ margins for the leaders.
Early platform deals validated the model. Capital is now chasing the next ones.
The deal lives in that agreement: termination rights, fee resets, succession.
Framework adapted from Holland & Knight.
Finch powers the firm's non-attorney operations for a fixed fee per case. Holland & Knight facilitated the setup.
Your firm brought in $10M in fees last year and kept $2M as profit (EBITDA).
Buyers pay on adjusted EBITDA: your profit plus add-backs a new owner won't pay for, like above-market owner pay, perks and one-time costs.
+$14M of value, without signing a single extra case.
On the same $5M of EBITDA, 5× vs 10× is a $25M gap. Most of it is closed in the 12–24 months before you sell.
Case inventory is carved out of the multiple and treated as working capital.
That's where deals are won or lost in diligence. Clean case data is how you win it.
That's where every other firm feels it, whether or not they ever take a dollar.
A regional firm earns $5M of EBITDA and spends $3M a year on marketing. A fund buys it to build a $50M platform.
Sonoma County, 1997. Stayed small and family owned, and turned investors away. Today, two taprooms and visitors who travel for Pliny the Elder.
Independence works, if you are exceptional and content to stay small.
Chicago's craft beer crown jewel, founded 1988. Sold to Anheuser-Busch in 2011 for about $39M. Still a known brand, now one of many AB InBev labels.
The founder was paid and the name survived. The company became a line item.
A family brewery from Golden, Colorado, founded 1873. Took on partners and capital to scale. Now part of Molson Coors, one of the world's largest brewers, with the family still at the table.
The rare path where you become the platform, not the bolt-on.
Grow revenue relative to your costs
Cut your costs relative to revenue
The capital decision comes after the operating decision.
Or run a shadow one internally.
With KPI reporting you actually use.
A banker, M&A counsel and a tax structurer.
That's what creates options, whether or not you ever pull the trigger.
Consolidation is being decided in boardrooms in New York and Chicago. The question is whether you're the winery or the brewery.
Intake and case work, flat fee per case.
Put the leads you can't take to work.
Webinar #2: your path forward, by firm size.