Michael A. Smithwick is an adjunct consultant with Altman Weil, Inc. He provides consulting services to law firms in the area of mergers and acquisitions, including pre-qualification, preparation of the parties for the merger process, assessment of strategic alternatives and post-merger integration.

Before affiliating with Altman Weil, Mr. Smithwick had 29 years of experience directing the business operations of major law firms, the last 15 of which he spent as Chief Operating Officer for an AmLaw 100 firm.

In those positions, his responsibilities encompassed finance, banking relationships, and all related business services for multi-office law firms. He worked closely with firm Chairs, Boards of Directors, Department Heads, Practice Group Leaders and other executive lawyers on strategic planning, mergers and acquisitions, business development, risk management and organizational development. He directed business integration activities for mergers and acquisitions of groups of less than 10 up to groups of several hundred, including integrations within an existing facility, as well as integrations of new offices in new geographical locations and with new practices.

Mr. Smithwick has written multiple law office management articles. He has lectured on law office management, finance, strategic planning, merger integration and many other management related topics for such organizations as: the American Management Association; American Bar Association; Association of Legal Administrators and the New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Philadelphia Bar Associations. He also developed and taught a comprehensive course in law office management for The Institute for Paralegal Training.

He served as Finance Chair and a member of the Executive Committee for the American Bar Association's Law Practice Management Section. He has been a Trustee of the Philadelphia Bar Foundation and served for 10 years as an active member of the Investigative Division of the Philadelphia Bar Association's Commission on Judicial Selection. He served as President of the Philadelphia Chapter of the Association of Legal Administrators (ALA) and as Regional Vice President of ALA International.

Education

Mr. Smithwick is a graduate of St. John's University and has achieved the designation of Certified Administrative Manager. He is a graduate of the Leadership in Professional Service Firms program at Harvard University's Graduate School of Business.