Boutique private client law firm Berkeley Law, formed in May 2010, has been taken over by legal services firm Irwin Mitchell, the sixth such acquisition the latter firm has made since 2012.

Boutique private client law firm Berkeley Law, formed in May 2010, has been taken over by legal services firm Irwin Mitchell, the sixth such acquisition the latter firm has made since 2012.

London-based firm and its separate conveyancing business, Berkeley Hurrell, will continue trading under their existing brands from their offices in Mayfair and Kensington but will be part of the Irwin Mitchell Group.

All Berkeley Law staff have joined the group with directors Nick Rucker, Alex Ruffel and Tim Thornton Jones becoming partners in Irwin Mitchell.

The deal is an example of the kind of M&A activity affecting the private client law firm industry, facing some of the same pressures in terms of costs and a need for scale that are driving private banking. For example, two of the largest law firms in the UK that work in areas including private banking – Speechly Bircham and Charles Russell – have officially merged, taking on the new name of Charles Russell Speechlys.

Irwin Mitchell, part of the group, provides a diverse range of legal services to businesses and private individuals, across the UK and internationally. The firm has a national network of offices and deals with over 200,000 clients a year. This is the sixth acquisition by Irwin Mitchell since 2012 and comes in a year in which the firm has also opened two new offices in Southampton and Cambridge, and launched IMe Law Ltd, a joint venture with FTSE250 insurer esure.