The Eye of the Storm: Navigating the Surge in Middle-Market M&A Disputes
The middle market is the eye of the storm for mergers and acquisitions (M&A) disputes in 2026—and the reasons go beyond the numbers.
Frank Dery and Kevin Hagon joined Rita Garwood (Editor-in-Chief, ABF Journal) in an episode of The Pulse podcast to discuss what is driving the surge in middle-market M&A conflict, from the psychology of founder-led deals to hidden dangers of earnout drafting.
The scale of the problem is clear: 65 percent of surveyed experts expect dispute volumes to rise, but 72 percent predict average dispute values will grow even faster. And the middle market is where that tension is most acute.
Part of it is volume: There are simply more sub-$1 billion deals getting done. But middle-market disputes also have a different character.
The conversation also covers the earnout time bomb ticking inside deals structured during the post-COVID period, the interest rate spike, and why imprecise drafting is setting parties up for conflict years after closing.
M&A disputes are on the rise as global deal activity regains momentum.
Now in its seventh year, BRG’s M&A Disputes Report 2026 draws on insights from BRG experts, in-depth interviews with leading dispute and corporate lawyers, and a global survey of more than 200 attorneys, private equity professionals and corporate finance advisors.
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