Legal Business

Merger fever grips mid-market

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The trend of mid-market consolidation continues apace, with two major non-City players, Mills & Reeve and Thomas Eggar, announcing separate deals to strengthen their national coverage last month.

With the merger of Bond Pearce and Dickinson Dees going live on 1 May and Withers and Speechly Bircham confirming merger talks in March, partners at Mills & Reeve were due to vote at press time on a potential tie-up with Manchester-based George Davies. This news came just days after Thomas Eggar announced its own merger with City firm Pritchard Englefield.

Legal Business

First partner appointment for newly merged Bond Dickinson

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Addleshaw Goddard real estate partner Paula Dillon is to join newly merged Bond Dickinson in its first post-merger hire.

Dillon, who was recruited by legacy Dickinson Dees before its merger with Bond Pearce, will join the Leeds office next month. The merger goes live on 1 May.

Dillon is well regarded for all aspects of property development, investment and development-related secured lending. She is moving across from the Leeds arm of Addleshaw Goddard, where she was a partner for 14 years.

Speaking of her appointment, Dillon said: ‘I am excited by the opportunity to use my market knowledge and contacts to play a major part in the development of a high quality full-service offering in Yorkshire and to further develop the excellent platform that Dickinson Dees has already established.

‘The announcement of the merger with Bond Pearce was an added bonus, bringing yet more quality resource, and a strong reputation in the real estate sector to bear.’

John Marshall, senior partner at Dickinson Dees, added: ‘We are delighted to announce Paula’s appointment to join Dickinson Dees. Her profile in Yorkshire together with her wealth of experience will strengthen our offering even further and her appointment comes at an exciting time for the firm as we progress towards our merger with Bond Pearce on 1 May.’

Dillon’s appointment follows on from that of real estate partner and former head of Pinsent Masons Leeds office, Mark Owen, who joined Dickinson Dees last year.

In recent months, Dickinson Dees has recruited five other partners into its Yorkshire office: corporate banking lawyer John Connor, insolvency and restructuring lawyer Andy Stirk, corporate lawyer Shiv Sibal and litigator Nick Mason.

francesca.fanshawe@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Panic has ramped up merger mania

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A clear message from last month’s LB100 report was that the merger of two firms that have ‘simply cuddled together for bodily warmth to escape the chill of the recession’ could be a defective strategy. However, it seems that the appetite for mergers between struggling firms in the mid-market shows no signs of slowing down.

Legal Business

Leeds market set to change markedly as top tier loses talent

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Firms operating in the Leeds market have been in a state of flux recently, with the region’s mid-tier firms taking advantage of the shrinking headcount at the larger players.

Despite troubling economic conditions in the Leeds market, Gateley was not deterred, and opened its Leeds office in January, marking the firm’s eighth office in the UK.

The move saw Gateley hire restructuring partner William Ballmann and finance litigator Rob Payne from Cobbetts to launch the office. Ballmann is set to run Gateley’s Leeds outpost.