Deals Of The Day: The Latest In Wealth Management M&A – UK Law Firms Abandon Merger Talks

Editorial Staff

17 May 2022

Seddons, Lawrence Stephens
West End law firm , a leading commercial law firm based in Farringdon, have agreed to end merger talks, having announced that they were in negotiations in April this year.

“Together we have concluded that, while a merger between our firms presented an attractive opportunity with clear benefits for our clients and our people, ongoing negotiations highlighted considerations that prevented further progress,” the firm said in a statement yesterday. “For both our firms, this merger represented an exciting opportunity rather than a business need. We remain on excellent terms and we will now focus again on our respective growth plans to capitalise on the strong momentum that we are both enjoying.”

The deal would have created a full-service law firm with more than 180 people with a joint £25 million. When announced in April, the firm said the deal had been slated to complete in October.

The law firm sector in the UK, including the private client space, is relatively fragmented, although there have been deals such as the marriage in 2014 of Charles Russell and Speechly Bircham, or the combination of Irwin Mitchell and Berkeley Law. Separately, among recent deals, RWK Goodman and Goodman Derrick are merging into an entity called RWK Goodman LLP.