Directors Neil B. Glassman, Douglas M. Hershman, Marla H. Norton, and Michael J. Scali attended the 2010 Meritas Annual meeting. The conference was held in Los Angeles, California on April 7, 2010 through April 9, 2010. The Bayard directors joined approximately 300 other lawyers for three days of seminars and presentations on topics ranging from law firm administration to various topics of substantive law. All of the directors enjoyed renewing contacts with their colleagues from the major legal markets throughout the world, and celebrating Meritas’ 20 year anniversary as the world’s premier legal services network.

Meritas is an established global alliance of independent, full-service law firms. Since its founding, they have been distinguished by their quality standards. Leon Steinberg, a practicing lawyer, created Meritas in response to a need: He was frustrated by the difficulty of finding and hiring qualified, local counsel. He was also disappointed by the lack of quality control in firms outside his jurisdiction. Steinberg developed a rigorous system for evaluating firm performance and launched Meritas.

Over the years, Meritas has carefully vetted and invited select, like-minded firms to join the non-profit alliance for their mutual benefit. Today there are more than 170 Meritas law firms worldwide, in over 60 countries. Firms become members through invitation. To maintain membership, they agree to perform under Meritas' uniquely comprehensive Quality Assurance Program, ensuring that clients receive the same high quality legal work and service from every Meritas firm.

The Meritas model provides essential peace of mind for business owners, in-house counsel and others who can easily connect with carefully qualified, independent business legal expertise worldwide.

Bayard is the sole Delaware member of Meritas.