Manchester firm Linder Myers is the first acquisition of an ambitious high street consolidator which last year announced plans to acquire up to 60 law firms over the next five years.

Metamorph Law completed the deal yesterday through a pre-pack administration, just two years after Linder Myers was rescued by Assure Law. Assure became a joint-venture partner of Metamorph last year.

Metamorph, set up by strategy consultant and former commercial solicitor Simon Goldhill (pictured), was last month granted an alternative business structure licence by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. 

Linder Myers is understood to employ 66 solicitors and has annual turnover of £12m. The firm will trade as ‘Linder Myers, part of Metamorph Law’ from its Spring Gardens office in Manchester, as well as its bases in Lytham, Chester and Shrewsbury. 

‘We are delighted to announce the merger with Linder Myers as the first step of our strategic plan,’ said Goldhill.

‘Linder [has] the support functions required to service a multi-office firm of around 200 staff. This merger gives us the base on which we can now anchor our operations and seek to build with subsequent acquisitions nationwide.’

Trevor Ward, one of the former Linder Myers equity partners who is joining Metamorph as head of the Bodily Injury Division, said: ’The decision to merge was unanimous among the partners. We are excited by their vision for how we can better service our private client and SME clients.’

Metamorph will principally be targeting firms in the £2m-£5m turnover range. But it said Linder Myers effectively amounts to ‘four deals in one’ in that it has four offices. The business expects to complete at least one more acquisition this year.