AGRD Partners, a private equity‑backed association of business law firms formed in 2025, has expanded its platform with the addition of two Swedish firms.
The group has added eight-partner Wigge alongside Bokwall Rislund, a seven‑partner firm with 13 staff including associates.
The firms mark the group’s first acquisitions since its launch and represents a significant step in its stated strategy of building its presence across the Nordic region and internationally.
Backed by Nordic private equity firm Axcel, AGRD Partners was created through the combination of six Swedish law firms: Allié, Born, Morris Law, Next Law, Synch and TM & Partners. The addition of Wigge and Bokwall Rislund has swollen the group to 75 partners.
The new arrivals bolster the group’s capabilities across several high‑demand practice areas. Wigge, a transactions‑focused firm, brings strength in financial regulation, banking and finance, private equity, capital markets and real estate, while Bokwall Rislund is known for competition law, public procurement and adjacent regulatory fields.
Group chief executive Maria-Pia Hope, former managing partner of top Swedish business law firm Vinge, said their addition embodied the strategy behind the group’s formation.
“We created AGRD Partners last year with a long‑term vision to build a strong, collaborative platform of leading business law firms,” she said.
“Wigge and Bokwall Rislund are exceptional firms that fit with our culture and ambition. We aim to scale AGRD in markets across the Nordic region and internationally, staying true to the collaborative and supportive approach of Scandinavian private equity as we expand.”
For Wigge, joining AGRD Partners offers an opportunity to remain independent while benefiting from the group’s infrastructure and shared investment.
“Joining AGRD allows us to remain independent while gaining access to an ambitious platform with collaboration, innovation and growth at its core. We look forward to contributing to the group’s shared goals and enhancing the value we deliver to clients,” said Patrick Forslund, founding partner at Wigge.
Bokwall Rislund’s managing partner, Amir Mohseni, emphasised the dual focus on specialist expertise and industry development, saying the firm saw this as “an opportunity to help shape the future of the legal industry while developing our business as a market‑leading specialist firm”.
Both firms will continue to operate under their respective names but will participate in joint initiatives across the AGRD platform. This, the firms said, would preserve each firm’s individual identity while promoting collaboration and shared investment in technology, innovation and strategic growth.
While law firm aggregators like AGRD are relatively new to the Nordic market, they are well known in the UK, with FTSE-listed Knights being perhaps the best-known alongside MAPD Group. However such high-growth law firms have been under increased regulatory scrutiny since the well-publicised collapse of Axion Ince, with the Solicitors Regulatory Authority promising greater vigilance in future.
Speaking to this title, Hope said that AGRD was looking to expand into the UK, saying: “While our attention initially has deliberately been very much on the Nordics, we intend to now focus on UK opportunities given it is Europe’s biggest legal market."
She added: “It is too early to give an exact timing as to when the first investment might be, but what we can say is that there is a lot of interest in our model, and we are enjoying some really good conversations.”
Late last year US firm McDermott Will & Schulte confirmed it was also considering PE-backed investment, amid growing interest in such ventures.
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