How two friends struck a deal to merge Columbia-based Nexsen Pruet with an Alabama firm.

• Position: Leighton Lord and Jeff Grantham, Maynard Cooper & Gale

At the first strum of the ear-splitting electric guitar, Cannery Hall erupted with life. Leighton Lord maneuvered through the sea of fans, inching closer to the stage as Jason and the Scorchers mesmerized all of Nashville. As the beat pulsed through him, Lord spotted a familiar face intermittently illuminated by the strobe lights a classmate he knew as Jeff Grantham.

It was 1986, and Lord and Grantham, who were both newly enrolled at Vanderbilt Law School, immediately bonded over their love for music. For the remainder of their academic careers, the two remained close friends. When they grew tired of studying, they marched out of the law school library and headed for the nearest music venue.

Prior to graduating and moving to different states to begin their law careers in 1989 they soaked up all the music they could, seeing iconic groups including Guadalcanal Diary, John Hiatt, REM, Love Tractor, and The Grateful Dead live in concert.

Little did they know that nearly 33 years later, the two executives would lead the merger of two law firms to create a practice that would have 23 offices coast-to-coast.

In 2018, after almost 30 years of limited contact, Lord picked up the phone to congratulate Grantham on being elected managing shareholder of Maynard Cooper & Gale.

Related content: Columbia-based Nexsen Pruet merges with Alabama firm, rebrands

For the next two years they sporadically sought each other's counsel regarding firm maters. In 2020 when the onset of COVID-19 swept uncertainty across the nation, they turned to each other once again.

"When COVID hit, Jeff and I really started talking a lot," Lord said. "'What are you doing? Are you closing down your offices? What's your mask policy?' all those kinds of things. We started this dialogue, really about helping each other become good managing partners, and then through that dialogue, we started to become very fond of each other's law firms."

Nearly five years after the rekindling of their friendship, they announced a major merger between their two law firms.

On Jan. 5, 2023, Alabama-based Maynard Cooper & Gale, and Carolinas-based Nexsen Pruet announced that they would be merging, operating under the name Maynard Nexsen effective April 1, 2023.

"We didn't go into this conversation like, 'hey, let's merge,'" Grantham said. "It was just interactions that got to the point where we realized, 'gosh, our firms seem very compatible.'"

According to Lord and Grantham, the initial idea of the merger...