Private equity-backed Lawfront has acquired UK law firm Trethowans, marking the largest deal yet for the legal services group.
Lawfront, which is owned by London-based investment firm Blixt, said the deal would take its revenue to more than £130m and bring it closer to its stated ambition to be a top 10 regional legal services business in the UK.
It sees Lawfront move into South West England just a few months after it expanded into the South East by acquiring Kent law firm Brachers and the earlier purchase of North West firms Slater Heelis and Farleys, East Midlands firm Nelsons, and Colchester, Essex-based practice Fisher Jones Greenwood – its first acquisition back in 2021.
Lawfront said Trethowans fitted with its strategy to partner with leading regional law firms that have a strong brand for client service and management teams that have a history of delivering profitable growth.
“Partner firms fulfil their growth ambitions through additional local ‘merge-in’ acquisitions and by leveraging Lawfront’s investment and expertise in people, IT, AI, marketing and business development,” the group said.
Trethowans has its headquarters in Salisbury alongside four more offices across the South West in Southampton, Winchester, Bournemouth and Poole. The firm has around 50 partners alongside 90 other fee earners and brought in turnover of nearly £26m for the year to 31 March 2024, up nearly 50% on FY19’s £17.4m. Meanwhile profits were just over £11.6m, up 39% on FY19’s £7.1m.
The firm advises corporate clients including household names such as Ladbrokes, Britvic, Jewson, Saint-Gobain and Bacardi-Martini according to its website, as well as private clients. Four of the firm’s practices – corporate and commercial, clinical negligence, personal injury and personal tax, trusts and probate – are ranked Band 1 by the Legal 500.
Neil Lloyd, Lawfront CEO, said the group had been impressed with Trethowans “rapid growth and entrepreneurial, no-nonsense approach to legal services”.
He added: “Lawfront is increasingly seen as the leading consolidator in the regional full service legal market: backing firms’ management teams, preserving their client facing brands and bringing to bear considerable experience in marketing, IT, finance, people and compliance.
“The high-quality firms, such as Trethowans, that have partnered with Lawfront are testament to our leading position. We provide a credible alternative to the equity partnership model of ownership, addressing concerns of succession, legacy and the scale of investment required to remain competitive.”
Under Lawfronts’ model, the acquired firms keep their brands and management but the group has central operations servicing all of them, Legal Futures reported.
Mike Watson, Trethowans’ managing partner, said the opportunity to be part of a larger group “while preserving our brand identity and culture is a distinctive feature of Lawfront that made this partnership very compelling”.
Lawfront’s latest acquisition comes amid growing private equity investment in the legal profession. A quarter of all legal M&A last year involved either new investments by private equity businesses or private equity-backed law firms, according to the UK Legal Services Market Report published by IRN, up from 20% in 2023.
Meanwhile, research by merger specialist Acquira Professional Services found private equity had pumped almost £1.2bn into the UK legal sector over the past five years, a record £534m of that in 2024. Private equity buyers have been attracted to the legal sector’s investment potential due to steady revenue streams and a fragmented legal landscape of smaller firms that enables them to pursue a ‘buy and build’ strategy to create larger law firms.
The strategy appears to benefit law firms receiving investment: since 2022, private equity-backed firms have increased their revenue by 30%, double the 15% achieved by the UK’s top 50 firms, according to research by Hazlewoods. The 12 PE-backed firms included in the study grew their revenue to £780m, whereas the top 50 firms increased revenue to £24.2bn.
Blixt initially aimed to build Lawfront into a £100m business when it founded the group in 2021. Carl Harring, Blixt’s CEO, pointed to the venture’s success: “It was only in the first quarter of the year that we celebrated passing the £100m revenue milestone but now we are realistically looking at exceeding £150m over the next 12 months.”
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