Last year there was a reasonable level of merger activity in the legal market with the consummation of a number of high profile mergers:  Hill Dickinson and Middleton Potts, Speechly Bircham and Campbell Hooper, Beachcroft’s takeover of the Kingslegal insurance business. The year ended with the announcement of the transatlantic pairing of Lovells and Hogan & Hartson.  In parts of the sector we saw a number of defensive mergers, with some firms looking to the safety of consolidation as a route out of the recession. 

Bolt-ons of teams and partner moves have continued apace in 2010.  Restructuring by firms at partner level has not been limited to those individuals whose practices had been affected by the recession.  This has contributed to the trend of partners and teams becoming ever more mobile as they look for fresh opportunities or firms change their market focus. 

But what of the much-vaunted merger activity predicted for 2010? The recent announcement of the merger between Shakespeare Putsman and Berryman to create a Midland-wide network of regional offices and a £30m turnover practice is an interesting development.  However, are we about to see the start of a trend of real transatlantic consolidation?

Earlier this year Lovells completed its merger with Hogan & Hartson and Denton Wilde Sapte is shortly due to complete its merger with Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal.  This has been followed by the news of talks between SJ Berwin and Proskauer Rose and Hammonds with Squire Sanders & Dempsey.  The latter two mergers would create firms each with a combined lawyer headcount of well over 1,000. 

The rumour mill is rife and if it is to be believed, several mid-tier firms are or have been in serious discussions with American counterparts.  Simmons & Simmons was apparently close to a merger with Mayer Brown earlier this year. 

Merger activity is not confined to the legal sector.  Earlier in the year, the merger between one of the big four accounting firms, Deloitte, and one of the leading independent firms of property advisers, Drivers Jonas, caused a degree of speculation about the advent of multi-disciplinary mergers.  The takeover of NB Real Estate by Capita suggests that there may an appetite for building broader-based property advisory businesses.

As the “big bang” of the Legal Services Act is only just over a year away, perhaps it is time to anticipate some interesting developments in the wider professional services market. 

For more information on these issues please contact

Fergus Payne

or your usual Lewis Silkin contact