DWF remains the largest firm to date to float on the London Stock exchange, having done so in March 2019. But it didn’t last. Having started out in 1977 as an insurance litigation practice, DWF, once known as Davies Wallis Foyster, was originally a Liverpool and Manchester firm, though it now has offices across the world. Managing partner Andrew Leaitherland took up the role when it was created in 2006. He took the reins aged 36, one of the country’s
DWF remains the largest firm to date to float on the London Stock exchange, having done so in March 2019. But it didn’t last.
Having started out in 1977 as an insurance litigation practice, DWF, once known as Davies Wallis Foyster, was originally a Liverpool and Manchester firm, though it now has offices across the world.
Managing partner Andrew Leaitherland took up the role when it was created in 2006. He took the reins aged 36, one of the country’s youngest managing partners. He went on to transform a regional firm with a turnover of £34m into an increasingly international outfit. Four elections in a row (2009, 2012, 2014 and 2017) were all uncontested.
The bulk of geographic expansion came after 2011, when 2011 DWF had just five UK offices. Its first international outpost, in Dubai, opened in 2015. In an attempt to shake off its image as an unglamorous northern practice, as it grew DWF made decisions that added to the aura of prestige: office moves into landmark buildings such as the Walkie-Talkie in London and the Spinningfields complex in Manchester, for example.
The firm opened its London office in 2008, but the key growth spurt came in 2012 and 2013 through a series of domestic mergers with Buller Jeffries of Birmingham, Crutes of Newcastle, Biggart Baillie of Glasgow and Edinburgh and Fishburns of London. Also in 2013, DWF acquired the bulk of Cobbetts after its demise in 2013, through a pre-pack administration. This spate of mergers increased the firm’s size dramatically. In the process of growing, DWF moved away from smaller outposts and into bigger markets. It closed its Preston office 2017 in favour of relocating the 90-strong staff to its Liverpool office.
Leaitherland was ousted in 2020 in a shock development: disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic was cited as a cause. Then in 2023 the firm delisted from the stock exchange, bought by private equity house Inflexion.
