The private equity owner of one of the fastest growing law firms in the UK will break with convention by rejecting the option to sell and instead staying in control of the business. Fletchers Group announced today it had secured long-term backing from an affiliate of its private equity investor owner Sun Capital.
The US-based private equity outfit bought Fletchers in 2021 and has since embarked on a rapid expansion, taking the firm beyond its Southport headquarters and acquiring a string of other practices.
It might have been expected that the owners would now be plotting an exit strategy, but instead they want to stay on through the creation of a continuation fund transaction.
Fletchers chief executive Peter Haden said this is believed to be the first use of a continuation fund in the UK legal sector. ‘It’s an innovative solution for a private equity investor that has grown a business but wants to own it for many more years,’ said Haden.
‘Sun Capital has been a brilliant investor in our practice, and we’re delighted to sign up to working together for another four or five years. We believe this gives us certainty and continuity so we can keep investing for growth well into the 2030s.’
Alexander Wyndham, managing director at Sun European Partners LLP, Sun Capital’s European adviser, added: ‘We are very pleased with this outcome and are looking forward to continuing to invest and grow the business with this additional capital.’
Fletchers most recently announced the acquisition of Rayden Solicitors in November, the firm’s first move into family law. The whole business now has more than 1,600 employees having bought the likes of Minton Morrill, Serious Injury Law, Scott Rees & Co and the serious injury practice of Shoosmiths.
Haden said the firm’s core personal injury and clinical negligence practice will be subject to organic growth and further mergers to cope with increasing caseloads.
He added: ‘Over this last twelve months we’ve signed around 60% more clinical negligence cases than the previous year, so our biggest immediate priority is to recruit several hundred talented clinical negligence lawyers, especially in our new offices in the midlands, the south and the north east.’
The most recently-published accounts of Fletchers Solicitors Limited, for the year ended April 2025, show the firm recorded turnover of £77m and pre-tax profit of £7m. In the last full year before the private equity buyout, turnover was £32m and pre-tax profits were £3.9m.
Continuation funds, created as investment vehicles to allow investors to extend their involvement in a particular asset. According to an article by accountancy firm BDO, they have gained traction in recent years for ‘trophy assets’, especially where exit markets are challenging and where an existing asset is profitable. In the EMEA region, the article stated, in 2024 the number of continuation funds rose to 27, up from 14 in 2023 and four in 2022 and 2021.
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