Post Room M&A: My First Merger at 18, Before I Knew What a Merger Was (Intro)

In 2001, fresh out of school and on a gap year, I landed a post room job at a large City law firm. My daily route took me between two offices: Chancery Lane, steeped in tradition, and Fleet Place, sleek and modern. I didn’t know it at the time, but I had stepped into the aftermath of a high-profile legal merger between Denton Hall and Wilde Sapte. On paper, they were one firm. In reality, they remained “Denton” and “Wilde Sapte,” with departments, loyalties, and even office locations still split along legacy lines.

From behind my mail trolley, I could see what the boardroom could not: integration in name only. Admin staff spoke of “their” firm, and only marketing and HR, based in a neutral third office, had truly merged. Nearly 25 years later, with a career in post-merger integration, I recognise it for what it was, a textbook case of integration drift. Back then, it was simply my first job. Now, it stands as my first real case study and the start of a lifelong obsession with doing it better. The full story is a reminder that culture and connection do not merge just because the letterhead does. [Click to read the full story on Substack]