A recently filed lawsuit against Am Law 100 firm Blank Rome raises the question: What makes a merger?

Former partners of now-dissolved Dickstein Shapiro sued Blank Rome on Wednesday in Los Angeles, alleging that the firm’s mass lateral hire of more than 100 lawyers from Dickstein in 2016 should be treated as a merger, with all the legal obligations that entails. The plaintiffs, who are spread across New York, Florida, Washington, D.C., and California, are seeking to recover more than $4 million in capital contributions from Blank Rome.