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Bond Pearce and Dickie Dees' artistic symmetry

12 September 2012

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You couldn’t make it up. Well, actually you could. Just look at the numbers.

Bond Pearce’s 2011-12 turnover was £46.5m, Dickinson Dees’ £46.1m. Bond Pearce’s PEP was £235,000, Dickinson Dees’, erm, £235,000. It’s the £92m merger of equals to end all mergers of equals.

Anyone would think these guys had just opened up The Lawyer’s UK 200 preview, put their fingers on their own firm’s name and moved it up or down by a few millimetres before picking up the phone.

The synergies - financial and geographic - are aesthetically stunning. As if attempting to imitate Michelangelo’s The Creation of Adam, Bristol-based Bond Pearce has touched fingers with Newcastle-headquartered Dickinson Dees to unite the South West and the North East, potentially creating a firm that would worship in the Sistine Chapel of the top 40 UK firms by revenue.

But the deal is not wholly immaculate. Bond Pearce called off a merger of a similar size with Scotland’s Maclay Murray & Spens earlier this year, while Dickinson Dees has constantly been linked with a tie-up, suggesting the South West powerhouse is hardly the only firm it has been courting.

With Yorkshire firms Lupton Fawcett and Lee & Priestley also announcing merger talks, it’s a busy time for regional consolidation. Want to know who’s merging next? Just put a pin in next month’s full UK 200 supplement, see which is the next firm down in the list and consider them perfect partners.

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Readers' comments (6)

  • Anonymous | 12-Sep-2012 5:10 pm

    This looks like a bundling exercise with both Dickie Dees and Bond Pearce looking for another merger to solve their problems. It's not unforseeable that this time next year Quality Solicitors will have offices in Aberdeen, Bristol, London, Plymouth, Southampton, two Newcastle offices and one in the Tees Valley, as well as bases in Leeds and London.

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  • Anonymous | 14-Sep-2012 3:07 pm

    As an ex employee of Dickinson Dees I was interested in this merger. It appears that there is a lot of unecessary negatively and critisism of this proposal. What i can say is that dickinson Dees do not bundle into any matter and I would not describe their ambitious plans of growth to be a problem. Dickinson Dees are a dynamic, commercial law firm with a national presence and reputation. They have an extremely skilled and experienced management team who deal with external as well as internal matter in an exemplary manner. I see no reason why this would change when dealing with the merger.

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  • Anonymous | 18-Sep-2012 12:00 pm

    Anon 3.07pm

    It's fair to say you have no understanding of what "bundling" means whatsoever. I think you just gave away that you're part of the Dickie Dees marketing team. Fail.

    Just out of balance, the staff of Dickie Dees voted their firm as the worst in the country. To me, that says it all. Awful, awful firm.

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  • Anonymous | 18-Sep-2012 1:47 pm

    I think it is fair to say that Dickie Dees have been scrabbling around at the bottom of the barrel since around 2010. This is just another example of a mediocre firm doing mediocre things.

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  • Anonymous | 27-Sep-2012 11:22 am

    With reference to Dickinson Dees staff voting their firm as the worst in the country I assume that you are referring to the RoF survey. I think it's important to note that this survey was open to anyone to complete regardless of whether they work at the firm they are passing comment on.
    I work at Dickinson Dees and, after speaking to a number of colleagues across the firm, can say with absolute confidence that the results of this survey were not representative of people within the firm at all. It is clear that the same negative bloggers were up to their usual tricks.
    The reality is that Dickinson Dees is a great place to work.

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  • Anonymous | 30-Jan-2013 11:14 pm

    Nonsense. Dickie Dees was voted into last place because it was a wretched firm. It got into the middle ranks this year because it improved. One does wonder why Dickie Dees marketing team were so keen to vote though.

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