[1]Grover: sensible diversification
North-west firm Antony Hodari has purchased litigation specialist Tandem Law in further evidence of personal injury practices diversifying in the wake of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 coming into force.
The acquisition was agreed with the administrators for the business and the current management team. As part of the deal, all 45 staff and management will be retained.
The deal follows Antony Hodari’s recent pre-pack acquisition of Preston firm Ashton Fox, which had a workload of around 8,000 predominantly mortgage mis-selling and right-to-buy cases. Both Ashton Fox and Tandem Law, which has offices in Preston and Manchester, were victims of the Axiom Legal Financing Fund failure, leaving them unable to meet ongoing operational costs as promised funds were not made available.
Tandem was established in 2011 and grew rapidly. Antony Hodari is taking on around 18,000 live cases, including human rights/reparation cases involving former Kenyan Mau Mau activists making claims against the British Government over its brutal detention regime in the 1950s; professional negligence cases involving right-to-buy mortgages; claims resulting from the 2011 Sonae factory fire in Kirkby that lasted for eight days; and clinical negligence, healthcare and other professional negligence-type cases.
Tandem managing director Andrew Lindsey and head of marketing and development Xavi Rodriguez will join the group as, respectively, legal technical director and operations director for AVH Legal, Antony Hodari’s trading arm.
They will have leadership responsibilities for AVH Legal, which will merge the Tandem and the Ashton Fox operational entities.
Antony Hodari CEO Mark Grover said: “While our commitment to personal injury remains undimmed, this acquisition continues our post-LASPO strategy of sensible diversification. The hard work of recent years reshaping Antony Hodari is paying off as we have a lean and efficient business that can act quickly when opportunities such as this present themselves. I do not expect this to be the last deal we do.
“Tandem Law has a very healthy WIP with quality, interesting cases. It has fast established itself as the go-to firm for a range of specialist claims and we are confident that together we can continue to grow the practice.”
Earlier this week, Legal Futures reported that MTA Solicitors had continued its diversification away from personal injury by acquiring volume property practice Solex Legal Services.