Thu, 02 May 2024 | BUSINESS SALE
Acquisitive legal services group Lawfront has completed a deal for Manchester-headquartered law firm Slater Heelis. The acquisition is private equity-backed Lawfront’s eighth deal overall and third in the past 12 months.
Slater Heelis has seen significant growth in recent years, after implementing an acquisitive and organic growth strategy in 2021. The company has acquired Towns Needham and NJ Goodman & Co, adding service lines in insolvency and charity law, as well as adding a regulatory team. These new service lines complemented its existing offerings in corporate, family and Court of Protection.
Lawfront, which is backed by private equity firm Blixt Group, partners with general legal services companies that have a leading regional position, a strong client service offering, dedication to their staff and management teams and a history of profitable growth.
The firm then backs these companies to achieve their organic and acquisitive growth strategies and provides investment and expertise in marketing, finance, compliance, people, IT and AI.
The acquisition of Slater Heelis takes Lawfront to more than £70 million in revenue and is described as an important step in its efforts to build a "high-quality, national legal services business". The deal will also enable Slater Heelis to continue its own growth strategy.
Neil Lloyd, Lawfront Chief Executive, commented: "The deal is further validation of our unique approach to the general legal services market: backing firms’ management teams, preserving their client facing brands, and most importantly, enhancing the prospects of their people.”
Lloyd added that Lawfront was seeing “rapidly growing interest” in its proposition, which he said "addresses the major concerns of succession, legacy and the scale of investment required to remain competitive.”
Simon Wallwork, partner and Head of Corporate, who instigated and led the deal for Slater Heelis, said: "We started the process last June and the proposition provided by Lawfront is excellent. It has a shared vision of growth and investment and enables Slater Heelis to continue and fulfil its own vision. This transaction will accelerate our acquisition strategy as well as allowing us to invest in our culture and the communities we operate in."
Blixt Group Chief Executive Carl Harring added: "The firm is an exciting addition to the Lawfront family, with a strong team, a deeply embedded commitment to high quality client service and an ambitious growth agenda, and brings Lawfront revenue to in excess of £70m.”
"We look forward to continuing to support Lawfront on its exciting growth trajectory and delivering on its vision to transform the consumer and SME legal market, through partnering with the highest quality law firms in the UK."
Private equity investment is helping to drive significant growth in legal M&A
This practice, established for over 16 years, is available for sale. Offering premises Leased from own property company with capacity for 15 additional staff.
This practice, which was established over 40 years is available for acquisition due to retirement. The practitioner would be available to assist in the transition period to ensure a smooth handover of clients.
This practice, which was established in the 1980s, is available for sale due to retirement. The partners have flexible requirements. Ideally all of them would like to stay on, in some form, for varying time frames.
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