Private equity-backed UK regional legal services group Lawfront has announced two acquisitions as it continues its rapid expansion.
The group made the acquisitions through two of its existing firms: Essex- and Suffolk-based Fisher Jones Greenwood (FJG) acquired Giles Wilson, while Lancashire-based Farleys acquired Houldsworth Solicitors.
Giles Wilson is a 35-strong Leigh-on-Sea firm. The acquisition will increase FJG’s presence across East Anglia and allow it to expand its private client practice with a new dedicated vulnerable client team.
Houldsworth Solicitors is based in Clitheroe and is the third acquisition Farleys has made since joining Lawfront in 2022.
A so-called accumulator firm, Lawfront owns Nelsons, Slater Heelis, Brachers, Trethowans and Field Seymour Parkes in addition to Farleys and FJG. Backed by private equity firm Blixt, the legal group intends to build out a national business across the UK.
In August, the group completed a refinancing round that it said more than doubled its funding capacity, promising more acquisitions. The firm then announced that former chief executive Neil Lloyd would step into a board advisory position at the group, with Peter Martin-Simon to take the top job. Martin-Simon previously held the role of CEO at insurer Esure Group and is a non-executive director of Alfred and Mattioli Woods.
Following the two acquisitions, Lawfront’s group revenue is expected to hit £175m this year, a result the firm attributes to its people, technology and AI-enabled support, as well as its acquisition strategy. Following the announcement, Martin-Simon said that additional acquisitions remain on the horizon.
Axel Koelsch, chief operating officer at Lawfront, told Global Legal Post that the group’s strategy is to roll up the regional mid-market in the UK, mostly outside of London. The group offers a regional full-service, covering both B2B and B2C and targeting the mass affluent, high-net-worth SME market, with an overlap in the owner-managed business space.
“Our approach is to build leading infrastructure, policies, processes and technology tools to compete in that market,” he said. “We buy substantial leading regional brands, and we help those brands grow.”
Koelsch said the group’s offering of shared non-legal skills such as a full digital marketing team, pricing experts, recruitment specialists, learning development programmes, a strong AI investment programme and a single integrated cloud-based operating platform help to attract acquisition targets.
The acquisitions come amid intense scrutiny into the accumulator growth model.
An independent review into the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s (SRA) pre-intervention handling of fellow accumulator group PM Law, which collapsed in February, was published on 3 September. PM Law comprised 11 firms and 26 offices across Yorkshire, Cumbria, Berkshire, Derbyshire and London, and is now subject to further scrutiny for mishandling client funds.
Conducted by Jenner & Block, the review found the regulator missed several opportunities to address serious failings at PM Law over the past several years, despite having sufficient information to hand.
Last week, the regulator released a statement that said the review “makes for difficult reading” but stressed the progress it has since made as it looks to learn from its shortcomings.
The regulator was similarly criticised for its role in the oversight of accumulator group Axiom Ince in the run up to its collapse in 2023. Following the collapse of Axiom Ince, the SRA said it would be leading further investigations into accumulator firms and would be increasing inspections going forward.
Koelsch said this additional scrutiny on accumulator firms and the SRA would be a good thing for the industry in the long run.
“The firms that have failed have usually been bootstrapped firms that make it up as they go along; the difference is that we [Lawfront] are very well funded, have strong governance in place and have regular engagement with the SRA,” he said. “It is really good news because it removes the bootstrappers that give the roll-up idea a bad name in the market.”
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