Partners at Bond Pearce and Dickinson Dees have voted in favour of a merger, creating a £95m firm.
The merger, which was voted through by partners at both firms today (7 December 2012) will go live on 1 May 2013. The new firm will be called Bond Dickinson, and will have eight offices across Aberdeen, Bristol, Leeds, London, Newcastle, Plymouth, Southampton and Tees Valley. As part of the deal, the firms will move into larger offices in London.
Dickinson Dees managing partner Jonathan Blair will become managing partner of the combined firm, while Bond Pearce chairman Nick Page will be its chairman. Bond Pearce managing partner Victor Tettmar and Dickinson Dees senior partner John Marshall will serve on the senior management team at Bond Dickinson.
In a statement, Blair said, “As we said when we announced our discussions, both firms had clearly articulated strategies. Our merger is a major step in the delivery of those plans and our new scale will give us the strength in depth and sector insight to support our clients’ growth plans. The merger will give us a strong base for further growth and lateral recruitment.”
News of the tie-up talks between Dickinson Dees and Bond Pearce first broke in September (12 September 2012). For more analysis on the merger, click here.
Great match! Wish them all the success!
Best of luck Dickie Dees. Top 50 status must be getting closer every day well done guys!
Fantastic news. The end of Dickinson Dees is now in sight.
This is great news and well done to DD. A fantastic strategic move that will catapult DD into the top flight of regional powerhouses making it the undisputed premier law firm in Newcastle upon Tyne and Teeside. Congratulations to Mr Blair and Mr Marshal for great leadership and having the courage and vision to lead this sleeping giant of a law firm out of its slumber and into the modern professional advisery world. We know some within the ranks will not be happy at such a significant shakeup but very best wishes from all of us at Ward Hadaway.
“Our merger…..will give us the strength in depth and sector insight to support our clients’ growth plans” What a load of meaningless gobbledegook? What on earth does that mean exactly? This is what Dibb Lupton Alsopp, Booth & Co and other regional firms were bleeting on about 15 years ago. Who was it that suddenly sounded an alarm at DD?
Let’s not forget that in the 1990s Dickinson Dees was a top 30 law firm.
It’s (largely) the same people who today are toasting the merger, who oversaw the firm fall to a paltry 58th place.
I really hope I’m proved wrong, but I predict that from 1 May 2013, Bond Dickinson will begin a slow decline down the UK rankings.
I think this is good news. I own a fleet of high tech ice cream vans and we have just expanded into Wallsend. If we decide to expand into Bristol I would definitely use this company.
I think it’s a real shame that Dixon Dees will no longer be identified with the North East and Middlesborough. It is a great brand and synonomous prestige, quality, integrity.
…Always a load of work putting deals together and always important to think that real people affected so hopefully jobs assured too…but focus on top table roles smacks of expediency not strategy…not so much ground-breaking as a bit of hoe-ing
Pleased to see the partners decide to stop using the name Dickinson Dees. For the last few years it has carried negative connotations, especially in the North East. Maybe now they’ll also ditch the absurd “Leading law firm” tag?
The subtext is “We were both desperate to merge”.
You can almost hear the sigh of relief from partners in Bristol and Newcastle.
It’ll be interesting to see how they go about their “efficiency savings”.
They should have continued to plough forwards with their previous strategy to be the biggest and the best in Newcastle, Teeside and York. They could have cleaned up all along the East coast and let’s face it – nobody else spotted that gap in the market! They could have gone on to Skegness, Southend and even all the way down to Brighton. Now they’re just doing what everyone else has done. But 20 years too late.
I am a client of Dickinson Dees and we think they will really benefit from their increased scale and it will be great for their strength in depth. I know they have struggled with sector insight into our business but now they will be able to support our growth plans with much more thinking out of the box by pushing the envelopes. I love their blue sky thinking and we’ll definitely run this up the flagpole to see if we can get more bang for our buck out of this merged combination. You can never have too much strength in depth and sector insight. Best of luck. South Kenton Corner Shops Lts.
I work as a solicitor in DD and I think this is a very interesting development. The associates at DD can look forward to some great secondments to our new offices and likewise Bond Pierce associates will be able to spend time in Middlesbrough. I heard on the internal grapevine that this was the deal clincher for BP.
Will they continue with their quaint tradition of always having a member of the Dickinson family on the letterhead?
Or will those corporate tyros from Bristol try to force the Geordie Gentlemen to adopt a more meritocratic approach to partner promotions?
Amazing Fact: Even after this merger, the new firm will have less solicitors than Dickie Dees had on its books in 2005.
The statistics can be found at https://www.thelawyer.com/firm-profile-dickinson-dees/115309.article
The key difference here is that the solicitors will be distributed across a larger area, which is why this merger looks like a good move.
Wow. That’s a lot of senior management positions for a firm of that size. Do they really need them all?
What does a self proclaimed ‘leading law firm’, do when it doubles in size?
I suggest ‘leading law firm (x2)’ Bond Dickinson. It’s no more silly than what Dixon Dees have been doing in recent years.
Anon at 6.24 pm
You’re probably right. The “internal grapevine” no doubt also made it clear that potentially having to work with up themselves juniors with a basic sense of humour nearly derailed the whole thing for Bond Pearce (with an “ea”).Thankfully for us, they obviously had the fortune not to come across you in the lead up to this being announced.
RIP Dickinson Dees (1975-2013).
Not many will mourn its passing.
Some of these comments are very funny, but I have to say, the general tone of bitterness/cynicism does not bode well for the new firm. Good luck, anyway!
Any truth that the logo of the new firm will be the stock photo of a smiley Jonathan Blair?
Clearly a quiet day for the headhunters
Hill Dickinson? Bond Dickinson. Passing off action anyone?
Interesting that 90% of these comments focus on the Dickie Dees angle. I wonder why that is…?
…spending time in Middlesbrough? Is this ironical?
Anon 2:56,
It’s because Dickinson Dees has become a little bit of a joke in legal circles. It’s not a terrible law firm, indeed it’s an average lower tier provincial law firm. However the firm’s Communications Team try to publicise that Dickinson Dees is one of the UK’s best firms. This strategy is making Dickinson Dees the subject of ridicule, despite the good job done by 90% of staff.
Good luck to the new firm. I dare say another firm will be the subject of mirth soon.
The merged firm will have fewer solicitors than DD alone had in 2005? Total nonsense! in 2005, DD had a factory conveyancing arm, staffed by spotty teenagers fresh out of college. They sold that business when the wheels fell off the property market, meaning fee earner (not solicitor) numbers fell, obviously. If people want too ore points, then at least try toget your facts right! Personally, I think the merger is a good move by both firms – talk of foreign offices may be a bit far fetched however!
Anon 10:46 I suggest you do your research.
Contemporaneous statistics published in The Lawyer show that betwen 2005-2012, in percentage terms the number of partners at Dickinson Dees dropped by 17% and the number of solicitors fell by over 69%!
In 2005, Dickie Dees had 699 solicitors and 64 partners (as set out in https://www.thelawyer.com/firm-profile-dickinson-dees/115309.article) By 2012, Dickinson Dees has 215 lawyers and 53 partners (from this years UK 200 rankings).
It surprised me too! The only other explanation would have been that in 2005 the PR team were exagerating the number of fee earners they had. However that’s surely unlikely.
Dickie Dees under Blair / Marshall is just a few tweaks away from being a really good law firm.
That’s why I’m optimistic about Bond Dickinson. I’ll be even more optimistic if they tone down the marketing speil and work on building greater goodwill.
The spelling on these comments is truly awful. Quiet day for the headhunters indeed…
I preferred Rollonfriday’s suggestion for the firm’s new name – Pearce Dick
Anon 13 Dec 1123. I am afraid you are misguided in believing all you read in The Lawyer. I was a partner at Dickinson Dees in 2005 and the firm never had 699 solicitors. This was in fact the total staff numbers at the time. If this was in fact printed it was an error and not one that even a naive PR department could have attempted.
For the record I think the merger makes sense and the negative comments reflect the jealous nature of others in the North East market. Some will be former DD employees and partners who could not deliver what was required, others will be competitor firms who for all the noise still get nowhere near matching DD’s reputation and quality.
Time for you all to grow up and acknowledge a good business decision when you see it.
Anon 17 Dec 2:39
Nobody is saying merging with BP is a bad business decision. I think what people are saying is that the failure to expand outside fo the NE for so long was a bad business decision and now it is too little too late. This ship sailed 10 years ago. The other point is that the market can see DD for what it is. A sleepy regional outfit afraid to come out of its comfort zone where the partners have not invested in future growth and investment. What DD frequently does is use its marketing department to create false propoganda that unfortunately nobody other than DD believes in (…Slaughter and May of the North, a London office with no staff etc etc). Quite silly really.
Grow up? This is a forum for lawyers.
Anon 17 Dec 2.39,
I got told during a law firm management course in 2008 that Dickinson Dees had deliberately assigned many of its secretaries as fee earners to make it look like a bigger firm. That’s consistent with the bizarre figure of 699 solicitors. It’s a sad strategy.
I take issue that anyone who isn’t impressed by Bond Dickinson or their frequent press releases is jealous or has failed at Dickinson Dees. I don’t think that is supported and it’s not true of me. Indeed I think that reaction (deaf to problems, arrogant, slagging off ex-staff) is actually why the firm generates lots of comments (and ultimately has chosen to ditch the brand Dickinson Dees).
DLA Piper’s mergers 1998-2005 were great business.
This is average business. One wonders why Bond Pearce agreed to it. Sure, they needed a Leeds office but they didn’t really require an office in Newcastle, let alone two. They had already opened offices in Aberdeen and London which are to be the new firm’s two key areas of growth. I can see what Dickie Dees get but I simply cannot understand what Bond Pearce get out of all this.
So, Bond Dickinson can’t manage to get a new website up despite 5 months notice. Not a good sign of things to come.
Bond Pearce site is still there and the Dickie’s one just has a holding statement.
First own goal.