Merger: partners eye creation of a top 60 UK practice

Midlands firm Gateley Wareing has agreed a merger with Scottish practice Henderson Boyd Jackson in a deal that will see the creation of a top 60 UK firm with an anticipated turnover of close to £30 million.


The combined business - to be called HBJ Gateley Wareing - will have 57 partners and more than 200 fee-earners based in offices in Birmingham, Edinburgh, Leicester, Nottingham and Glasgow.


It will be run by a management board comprising three partners from each firm. Gateley Wareing senior partner Michael Ward and Henderson Boyd Jackson chairman Malcolm McPherson will act as senior partners.


The merger - which followed an introduction by a mutual banking client - is expected to be effective from 1 January 2006. HBJ Gateley Wareing's core areas of practice will include banking and finance, corporate and commercial, employment, dispute resolution and real estate.


Mr Ward said: 'From an institutional point of view, the market place is moving towards formal panels and deliverability north and south. This is an institutional and large corporates play, rather than a middle-market play.


'Henderson Boyd Jackson has a strong banking and finance practice and they wanted resources south of the border.'


He told the Gazette that there was 'no grand plan' to expand into London or the north of England, although he added that the merged firm would look at any proposal on its merits.


Mr McPherson said: 'Both firms have a clear strategic vision of their future which makes the merger both compelling and exciting. The merger allows us to extend our capability into a key commercial centre in England to provide a greater breadth of expertise in our core practice areas. We have already identified considerable opportunity to refer cross-border work immediately.'