Trethowans: Neil Lloyd (l) with Mike Watson
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.
The deal takes Lawfront’s revenue to more than £130m and closer to its stated ambition of building a national group turning over £150m.
Trethowans, headquartered in Salisbury, also has offices in Southampton, Winchester, Bournemouth and Poole offering a broad range of consumer and business services. Its most recent accounts, for the year to 31 March 2024, show turnover of nearly £26m, with profits of £11.6m shared between the partners. It has more than 200 staff.
This is Lawfront’s second big deal of the year after expanding to the South-East in February by acquiring Kent firm Brachers. It joins North-West firms Farleys and Slater Heelis, East Midland firm Nelsons and Essex practice Fisher Jones Greenwood, the first acquisition back in August 2021.
Owned by private equity house Blixt, Lawfront has also backed two small tuck-in acquisitions for Nelsons and one each for Fisher Jones and most recently Farleys.
Under the model, the firms are general legal practices that retain their brands and management but Lawfront has central operations servicing all of them.
The long-term aim is to have 60% of turnover coming from consumer legal services and 40% from advice to SMEs; no one practice area will account for more than 20% of turnover.
Lawfront chief executive Neil Lloyd said: “Trethowans has such a strong brand and reputation in its region, and we are impressed with their own rapid growth and entrepreneurial, no-nonsense approach to legal services.
“Lawfront are increasingly seen as the leading consolidator in the regional full service legal market: backing firms’ management teams, preserving their client facing brands, enhancing the prospects of their people and bringing to bear considerable experience in marketing, IT, finance, people and compliance.
“The high-quality firms, such as Trethowans, that have partnered with Lawfront are testament to our leading position. We provide a very credible alternative to the equity partnership model of ownership, addressing concerns of succession, legacy and the scale of investment required to remain competitive.”
Mike Watson, Trethowans’ managing partner, added: “Trethowans is a forward-thinking law firm, and our partnership with Lawfront presents an excellent opportunity to under-pin and accelerate our growth following a year in which turnover grew by more than 20%…
“With Lawfront’s support, we look forward to expanding the Trethowans brand within our existing office locations and beyond. Being part of a larger group while preserving our brand identity and culture is a distinctive feature of Lawfront that made this partnership very compelling.”
Lawfront is the first mover among private equity firms in this ‘buy and build’ approach to a law firm group. We reported this week on the second, Adeptio, its approach to the legal market and the experience of the boss of the first firm it bought.
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