Merger talks between private client firms Withers and Speechly Bircham were called off at the end of May as both sides claimed the merger would not be in their best interests.
A joint statement from the firms said: ‘Following detailed discussions between the management and partnerships of Withers and Speechly Bircham, both sides have now concluded that a merger would not be in the best interests of both firms and have agreed not to pursue this further. The talks have enhanced the respect that both firms have for each other.’
Speechly managing partner Michael Lingens said that the firm would now look to expand its international private client practice following launches in Zurich and Luxembourg.
The merger would have created a 600-lawyer practice with a combined revenue of £170m, elevating it into the top 25 of the Legal Business 100. It is understood that both firms had put the proposed union to their partnerships to gauge support, which led to the merger being called off.
The proposed deal has been widely perceived by rivals as more advantageous to Speechly, which had annual revenues last year of £57.6m, compared to Withers’ £113.3m. There is also a considerable gap in the profitability of the pair; Speechly’s profit per equity partner during that same period was £299,000 – down 22% on the previous year – compared with profits of £383,000 at Withers.
One rival private client partner commented: ‘It’s going to make a very large department, which begs the question “is big necessarily beautiful in the private client world?” Historically, departments have been much smaller so it would have changed the landscape.’
Conversely, Speechly would have given Withers a solid mid-market transactional team to offset its core private client business.
The end of the talks comes despite a sustained run of consolidation in the UK and internationally, with SJ Berwin understood to be moving closer to a conclusion in its discussions over a union with Asia-Pacific giant King & Wood Mallesons.