Later in the afternoon, he was surprised (and almost fell out of the chair) when he received a visit from Mr. Glenn Zack, one of the founding partners at ZW& Co. Glenn was quite the epitome of the elder partner of a firm, and you could almost feel his aura when he came into the room. After catching up on things, the bombshell fell: ZW & Co. wanted Taylor, Taylor & Co. to merge with them.

After sucking some air, Sammy and Glenn continued the discussions. In general, ZW & Co. wanted to expand into The Woodlands, had never wanted to lose Sammy, and in general offered other inducements such as higher income, pensions, and the ability to manage and oversee certain areas and clients that he had always wanted to do.

A moment of clarity overcame Sammy: he knew Glenn was really wanting Janets consulting business, which had continued to blossom (actually explode!). Lets face it, she was the business. She still accounted for probably 60% of the firm billings, even today. Anyway, allegedly all of this was for various business reasons and also the fact that without a doubt, Taylor, Taylor & Co. had the highest ratings of any firm in the area, although it clearly was not the largest. While much more talk ensued, that was the gist of the meeting. And it was so nice not doing it via Zoom, as so many meetings were held in the early 2020s. People contact still mattered!

Glenn asked Sammy to talk it over with Janet and the other partners, and hopefully they could meet next week at Tonys (a very fancy restaurant in Houston). Sammy began remembering the troubles involved with merging with two much smaller firms- the personnel issues, the client issues, the lease problems, the computer issues, etc. But, Relax! Sammy told himself. One thing at a time.

1. Was Glenn Zack talking to the right person about the potential merger? In other words, was it appropriate if Sammy was managing partner? What if he wasnt managing partner? Or, should he be talking to Janet first and/or someone else?