Merger Watch

1

Rosenblatt parent company snaps up Memery Crystal in £30m deal

RBG Holdings has purchased independent London outfit Memery Crystal in a £30m acquisition. As a result of the transaction, which was announced on the London Stock Exchange on Tuesday morning, the parent group of litigation-focused Rosenblatt Limited confirmed that the two firms will retain their own brands and offices in the deal, while also stating […]

DMH Stallard aims to re-enter top 100 with family law merger

DMH Stallard is to merge with divorce specialist Brookman Solicitors, two years after hitting the £30m mark. The merger is the Crawley-headquartered firm’s fourth in the last six years, following two combinations in 2015 (with Guildford firm AWB and London firm Ross & Craig) and one in 2017 (with Sussex’s Rawlison Butler). DMH has tended […]

scotland

Clydes parts ways with Scottish real estate firm

Clyde & Co has parted ways with Scottish real estate firm Simpson & Marwick, just five years after the firms merged. The firms merged in October 2015, marking Clydes’ first foray into Scotland. Now Simpson & Marwick has decided to go it alone, with its 26-strong residential property team moving to new offices. Simpson & […]

house

Conveyancing firms declare national ambitions with £45m merger

Conveyancing firms O’Neill Patient and Cavendish Legal Group are to merge, creating a firm that will challenge for the UK top 70. Stockport-headquartered O’Neill Patient is the larger of the two parties, posting revenue of £31m in the year ending 31 December 2018. Its main area of practice is conveyancing but it also handles commercial […]

Warsaw

Two CEE firms merge in spite of Covid-19 headwinds

Two Polish firms are merging into a single entity, a rare fusion at a time when the coronavirus is ravaging the global legal market. The combination of mid-size local firms Zieba & Partners and JS Legal will be called B2R Law Jankowski Stroiński Zięba, and will number 14 partners, as well as 70 lawyers. The […]

Birketts enters London with insurance firm merger

East Anglian firm Birketts is to take its first steps into the London market via a merger with an insurance boutique. EC3 Legal has been in business for eight years and is led by David Coupe, a former partner at both Clyde & Co and Ince & Co. It has around 18 lawyers, including five […]

handshake

Knights’ growth spurt continues with acquisition of two more mid-tier stalwarts

Listed law firm Knights has continued its rapid expansion with the acquisition of two firms in the UK 100-200 bracket. Shulmans of Leeds and ASB Law of Crawley are the latest firms to be taken over, following a spate of acquisitions including North West firm Turner Parkinson; Leicester-based Spearing Waite and Cummins Solicitors, as well […]

southampton

South East merger to create new top 100 firm

Two firms in South East England are to merge in the spring. Southampton’s Moore Blatch and Guildford’s Barlow Robbins will tie the knot on 1 May 2020, creating a combined firm which will be named Moore Barlow. The firm will have offices in Southampton, Guildford, Woking and Lymington, as well as two London outposts in […]

Australian flag

DWF swallows Australian firm in Asia-Pacific expansion bid

DWF has absorbed an Australian law firm to expand its Asia-Pacific presence, yet another acquisition in a global expansion effort that has seen openings to bolster its international network. The publicly-listed firm has opened its doors to a 16-strong team that includes eight lawyers from McDonald Johnson Lawyers, a legal outfit based in Newcastle, a city […]

newcastle

Watson Burton’s 208 years in Newcastle ends in merger with Weightmans

National firm Weightmans has acquired a regional player in the North of England, in a move that will enable it to set up shop in Newcastle for the first time. Weightmans has bought Watson Burton, which has offices in Newcastle, Leeds and London. The deal went live today and sees Weightmans take on 64 new […]

Schjødt and Hamilton merge to create Nordic powerhouse

Norway’s Schjødt and Sweden’s Hamilton have merged to create a €108m firm, in what is one of the first Norwegian-Swedish tie-ups. Following a partnership vote this week, Schjødt will commence a full integration with Hamilton. The combined firm’s revenue will be around €108.4m; in 2018, Schjødt’s revenue was €87.4m while Hamilton’s was €21m. The firms […]