Shakespeares goes for Midlands domination with fourth merger in 18 months
Midlands firm Shakespeares is preparing to do its fourth merger in under 18 months with a tie-up with Solihull-based Wood Glaister due to go live on 1 December.
Paul Wilson
In June 2010, legacy firm Shakespeare Putsman merged with £7m Midlands rival Needham & James, creating a £24m, 56-partner firm (8 June 2010). This was closely followed by a merger with £6.6m Nottingham-based Berryman, bringing combined revenue to £28.4m and adding 17 more partners to the fold (18 August 2010).
Last month Shakespeares merged with Birmingham-based two-partner specialist social housing practice Gorrara Haden.
The latest tie-up sees the firm, which has rebranded as Shakespeares, acquiring Wood Glaister - a nine-partner firm specialising in property development, commercial property, commercial litigation and personal injury. The firm, which employs 55 members of staff, will continue to trade under its current name.
Shakespeares chief executive Paul Wilson is targeting a turnover of £50m in the next 18 months, with the aim of making Shakespeares a leading mid-tier firm. He has cited the economic climate and the Legal Services Act as the reason behind the latest spree of local mergers.
“This is the latest development in our strategic growth plan, which has seen the firm increase its turnover to £28m, employing 430 people. Our aim remains to be one of the leading Midlands domiciled legal services providers,” he said.
Shakespeares ranked 84th in this year’s The Lawyer’s UK 200.
Readers' comments (18)
Anonymous | 10-Nov-2011 5:39 pm
I've heard that they're thinking about taking over Dickinson Dees.
It looks like a good acquisition. Shakespeare will get offices in some new places.
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Anonymous | 11-Nov-2011 11:35 am
Shakespeares will be bigger in the Midlands than Gateleys - and better run.
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Anonymous | 11-Nov-2011 1:01 pm
Bigger in terms of numbers, But the comments above say they have added 11 partners and 55 staff after the merger with Berryman in August 2010 yet turnover has gone down from £28.4 million to £28 million. So much for being better run.
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Anonymous | 11-Nov-2011 2:32 pm
Why do so many people seem to hold so much against Dickinson Dees?
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Anonymous | 12-Nov-2011 11:28 pm
Firms become unpopular for lots of reasons. With DD the perception is that the management made some selfish decisions during the downturn (which came across as a policy of getting rid of pretty much every employee before any partners went). Might be unfair but they come across as unsympathetic and they've the lowest trainee retention in the UK..
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Anonymous | 13-Nov-2011 8:37 am
Good on Shakespeares. Berryman was a smart acquisition and this looks good too.
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Anonymous | 13-Nov-2011 1:37 pm
If Shakespeares can find themselves a slightly better Northern Firm to merge with / take over then they could be a real force.
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Anonymous | 13-Nov-2011 1:57 pm
Anon 2:32, it seems to have started on Roll on Friday where most of the horror stories always seemed to involve this 1970s style firm. Very very low trainee retention rates (worst in UK in 2011, 2nd worst in UK 2010) suggest there's a seam of truth in all the stick.
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Anonymous | 13-Nov-2011 2:15 pm
Berryman was a very good firm in 2008 so it looks like Shakespeare are doing their DD before merging.
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ummm | 14-Nov-2011 3:10 pm
Is it me, or do all the comments above read like they've been written by the same person???
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Anonymous | 14-Nov-2011 5:22 pm
Nope.
I wrote two of the comments (now three) but not the rest.
Well done Shakespeares. Good firm.
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Earl of Leicester | 16-Nov-2011 3:43 pm
Shakespeares have been sniffing round 2 or 3 firms in Leicester but apparently haven't found anyone willing to take them up on an offer yet. Rumour has it they may well be overlooking the Humberstone roundabout within the next 6 months.
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Anonymous | 16-Nov-2011 6:15 pm
simple strategy
(1) merge your way to a turnover of £50 million
(2) dont worry too much about profitability
(3) flog business as an ABS
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Anonymous | 17-Nov-2011 1:05 pm
Why can't we all just be happy for Shakespeares?
Personally I think a merger with Dickinson Dees wouldn't be bard.
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Anonymous | 18-Nov-2011 11:31 am
Re the partner redundancies at DD, I know far too many staff at all levels except for partner level be made redundant at Shakespeares so they are as guilty as anyone, if not worse of doing this. Also they make redundancies practically every six months so how anyone can feel safe in their job is a mystery.
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Anonymous | 18-Nov-2011 1:51 pm
they sound like they're made for each other then.
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Anonymous | 22-Nov-2011 0:20 am
Shakespeares made staff redundant at the time of taking over Needham and James and Berryman and I believe went through a further round of redundancies 6 months ago, and an agent tells me that they have just done another of round of redundancies in the last fortnight or so! Funny how that's never mentioned in despatches. I feel sorry for the poor guys at Wood Glaister, as you sure know what's around the corner....
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Anonymous | 22-Nov-2011 2:48 pm
Shakespeares made redundancies upon merger with Putsmans and then at least three times in 18 months before they merged with either Berrymans or Needham and James so it's not always merger driven.
Some say it keeps staff on their toes.
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