Listed firm Knights has acquired the West Midlands firm Thursfields in a deal worth £12.5m as it aims to enter another period of rapid growth. Knights has been a prolific acquirer of mid-market law firms over the past decade, with Langleys (£17.7m), Shulmans (£17.6m), Keebles (£12.6m), ASB (£12.5m) and Coffin Mew (£11.3m) among its most […]
Few UK start-up firms have experienced the same meteoric rise as Knights. Its position as a mid-tier disruptor and consolidator has been largely unchallenged, helping it to lift revenue by a market-topping 185 per cent over the last five years. With so many sub £50m firms contending with the twin issues of a cashflow crunch […]
Allen & Overy and Shearman & Sterling officially tie the knot today after a year of client discussions, integration planning and team introductions. The firm brings together nearly 4,000 lawyers, including 800 partners, with combined revenues of approximately $3.5bn. It had long been the plan of A&O’s outgoing senior partner Wim Dejonghe to develop a […]
If there’s any confirmation needed that A&O is in the driving seat of the Shearman merger, it’s this: the new senior and managing partner positions at the merged firm will be voted on only by A&O partners. But long term, Philip Bowden and Angela Clist (those are our picks; other candidates are available) will have […]
CMS is set to add two Swedish offices to its network after joining forces with a local firm. The merger with Stockholm-headquartered Wistrand will give the firm offices in both Sweden’s capital and its second city of Gothenburg. The announcement comes nearly two years after CMS announced its tie-up with Norwegian firm Kluge. Wistrand was […]
The following is a list of mergers and acquisitions made by law firms since 2009. It is impossible to make such a list completely exhaustive but it contains the majority of mergers involving UK200 firms, as well as the major tie-ups between large firms in the United States of America. The UK200 rank and revenue […]
Merger negotiations between two firms of different sizes can be a tricky process. Here, a number of mid-tier managing partners give their view on how to win the hearts of potential smaller matches when on the acquisition trail.
In what is the most significant merger deal to be achieved by a magic circle firm, Allen & Overy is to combine with Shearman & Sterling after a successful partnership vote. The voting started on 28 September with the polls having closed today. The firms said more than 99 per cent of the votes cast […]
Today’s the day: will Allen & Overy (A&O) and Shearman & Sterling vote to merge, or have efforts by both firms’ management failed to convince the naysayers? Unlike the excitement of a day’s General Election, both sides are being very lawyerly about it and can ponder for two whole weeks. The vote closes on 13 […]
Allen & Overy and Shearman & Sterling will have two weeks to cast their vote on a crucial tie-up deal for both firms. Voting starts on 28 September and the polls will close on 13 October. Both firms need approvals of 75 per cent in favour of the merger to proceed. There was another vote […]
Irwin Mitchell has secured a tie-up with one of Scotland’s independent firms, in a week that has also seen the long-discussed merger of domestic players Morton Fraser and MacRoberts. Following on from Morton Fraser and MacRoberts’ merger deal, Irwin Mitchell has snapped up Wright Johnston & Mackenzie, causing further disruption to the nation’s legal market. […]
Scottish firms Morton Fraser and MacRoberts are going ahead with one of the longest-discussed mergers in the history of the Scottish legal market, The Lawyer can exclusively reveal. The deal is broadly seen as a merger of equals, at least in terms of revenue size. In last year’s The Independents UK 200 report, Morton Fraser […]