Practice Management

The Octopus Group, the £13bn financial services and energy business, claims it is now the second largest estate planning business in the country after buying WSL Will Writing.

Kent firm Judge & Priestley has moved into the capital by acquiring Portner Law in one of several mergers and acquisitions announced this month.

Changes announced yesterday to how Level 7 apprenticeships are funded will undo “years of progress” in improving the legal profession’s diversity, the government has been told.

The government is to restrict funding for Level 7 apprenticeships, like the solicitor offering, to those aged between 16 and 21, it has announced.

Two fee-share law firms have topped the table for hiring lawyers ahead of big traditional firms, as the model continues to attract new recruits in large numbers.

Private equity-backed Lawfront has made its sixth and largest regional firm acquisition to date by bringing in Trethowans, which has five offices in South and South-West England.

Lawyers should not believe “everything you read” about the negatives of being acquired by private equity, according to the managing director of a Midlands law firm bought last autumn.

Maintaining a route to the equity for salaried partners and senior associates is key to the smooth acceptance of private equity money at law firms, an investor has argued.

Hill Dickinson has agreed the highest-profile sports sponsorship in legal history by securing a “long-term” naming rights deal for Premier League football club Everton’s new stadium.

Competition among private equity buyers has pushed the value of law firms to the “upper end” of their “legitimate range”, it was claimed yesterday.