Gold: Deal makes us more investable
London firm Mishcon de Reya is upping its focus on both the innovation economy and innovation in legal practice by merging with Cambridge-based practice Taylor Vinters.
It will join the group as MDR Taylor Vinters, offering legal and consultancy services to innovators and entrepreneurs.
The firms describe the deal as a “strategic combination” and Mishcon executive chair Kevin Gold told Legal Futures that it was not structured as a merger or acquisition, and no money has changed hands.
He said it would also make Mishcon a more investable business ahead of its listing on the London Stock Exchange, which was confirmed earlier this month.
Taylor Vinters operates in the key tech hubs of Cambridge, Oxford and London, and has seen revenue grow by over 40% in the past three years. Its last published accounts, for the year to 30 April 2020, put turnover at £21m, with a profit of £5.6m.
Last year, Taylor Vinters completed more than 160 venture funding rounds and supported around 25% of seed-stage equity funding in the UK.
It has a strong reputation for innovation itself, incubating contract review business ThoughtRiver, backing intellectual property start-up Pekama, and more recently investing in online legal services business LawBite.
Mishcon expects to report revenues of £188m for the 12 months to 9 April 2021, up from £130m in the first five years of its 10-year plan to become technologically transformed as well as to be a disruptive innovator in legal and consultancy services. It aims to increase turnover to £400m in the next five.
Over the past five years, it has launched incubator MDR LAB and invested in a number of lawtech start-ups, created the M:Tech programme for early-stage tech companies, launched an innovation department and a legal technology consultancy called MDRxTech, and invested in a data science capability.
A statement today said: “The strategic combination delivers on both firms’ strategies to support the innovation economy and accelerate their growing share of the innovation, technology and life-sciences legal and consultancy services market in the UK and in key international innovation hubs globally.
“The long-term vision of the Mishcon de Reya and Taylor Vinters teams is to establish the MDR Innovation Hub, which will bring together MDR Taylor Vinters, MDR LAB, MDRxTECH and utilise the data science expertise Mishcon has built into a centre of excellence for the innovation economy.”
Mr Gold said the combination “allows us to achieve our objectives quickly”.
Ed Turner, managing partner of Taylor Vinters, added: “Their values are closely aligned with ours, they understand the needs of our clients and our business and the strength of our brand – as we do theirs.
“Combining our businesses enables us to accelerate our strategy and help more innovators and entrepreneurs shape a better world. It means we are able to invest and develop our core capabilities, retain and attract talent and innovate in our service delivery for clients.”
