Two sets of mid-sized UK business law firms have announced plans to merge – London’s Seddons and GSC Solicitors and regional outfits Wilkin Chapman and Rollits.

The deals to create Seddons GSC and Wilkin Chapman Rollits will both complete on 1 April and create combined firms with revenue of £22m and £40m respectively.

They come hard on the heels of listed national law firm Knights' largest acquisition to date with a £30m deal announced earlier this week for South East firm IBB Law. 

News of the mergers comes in the same week the Law Society of England and Wales published its annual Financial Benchmarking Survey, which revealed that while mid-sized firms grew at a healthy rate of 6.1% last year, they faced business cost increases of just under 7%. 

Last week listed national law firm Knights made its largest acquisition to date with a £30m deal for South East firm IBB Law. 

The report noted that the smallest firms that participated in the survey were the least optimistic about future revenue growth.

The deal to create Seddons GSC will see the GSC contingent move into Seddons’ expanded West End premises.

Seddons is itself the product of a merger, launching in 1988 through the combination of specialist media practice Woolf Seddon and commercial practice Roscoe Phillips. 

Over the past 30 years it has grown into a full-service commercial and private client practice, with specialisms in real estate, corporate, dispute resolution, private client and family law. 

The deal will bring the firm GSC's strengths in corporate, commercial, real estate, dispute resolution and IP work. Seddons said the merged firm would leverage its combined strength to grow across all practice areas.

The partners of GSC Solicitors will become partners in the merged firm, which will have 43 partners. Simon Ross will continue as managing partner of the combined firm, working with Saleem Sheikh, senior partner of GSC Solicitors, who will become senior partner of Seddons GSC.

Ross said the deal would enable the combined firm to take advantage of new opportunities and provide existing clients with an enhanced level of service and expertise. 

"The merger strengthens our combined offering to both our existing client bases, and provides the perfect platform for our future growth," he said. "We look forward to working with our new colleagues to create a successful future together.”

Wilkin Chapman Rollits, meanwhile, will boast more than 500 people, including 70 partners, and positions itself as the largest regional law firm operating out of both Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, with offices in Grimsby, Lincoln, Louth, Hull, York and Beverley.

The firms stressed there were no planned redundancies as part of the deal.

Robin Simmonds, CEO of Wilkin Chapman, said: “There is a great synergy between the two firms across culture, values and strategy and we believe the new firm will provide our clients with the responsive, personal tailored support that they expect.

“We have shared our plans with a number of strategic commercial clients of both firms in the lead-up to announcing the merger and are pleased that they are very supportive of the move.”

Ralph Gilbert, managing partner of Rollits, said: “Both of our firms have deep local connections and histories within our respective regions and are very proud of these links. Such links help us understand the needs of our clients and bring insights to them."