National law firm expands into the North West

Advantage Law has expanded into Newcastle-under-Lyme and Sandbach after announcing it has concluded a deal to acquire Brown & Corbishley Solicitors.

Advantage Law, which has offices in Birmingham, London, Manchester, Hinckley and Stratford-upon-Avon, as well as international offices through its MDC network, has acquired Brown & Corbishley Solicitors.

The company has two partners which employ 20 staff at its offices in Newcastle-under-Lyme and Sandbach.

“Acquiring Brown & Corbishley Solicitors seemed to be an appropriate and exciting move for Advantage Law” said Fauzia Zafar, Managing Director at Advantage Law.

“At the core of both firms is a belief that client service is paramount and so many legal matters are wrapped up with legal and financial affairs that it makes sense to bring together firms operating with experts in different professional fields.”

Although believed to be the successor of a much older firm, Brown & Corbishley started life in the 1920s in a first-floor office in the High Street in Newcastle-under-Lyme under the leadership of William Harold Brown, and took its present name of Brown & Corbishley soon after Ernest Corbishley was taken into partnership.

At the end of the Second World War, the practice moved to the present site. In its early days, the firm was a private law practice, handling property, wills, probate and civil matters, but in the 1960s gained a strong reputation as a criminal practice, which continues to this day.

The late 1980s saw even bigger changes when a second office was opened in Sandbach.

Fauzia Zafar added: “We operate with many more professionally qualified, experienced lawyers than the 2average practice and that means that our clients get to talk to the real experts in law and business.

With Advantage Law’s organisational structure across the seven offices,the main contact is always qualified and is the person who does the work.

“It makes sense for two firms of a comparable culture to work together to offer clients a wide range of legal expertise covering interwoven professional services.”

The combined enterprise will have around fifty qualified business and legal advisers based across the UK and internationally, the greatest concentration of which will in Birmingham and London, where the firm is a market leader in legal and business advisory services provision to SMEs.

Fauzia Zafar added that the firm saw potential to do more in international corporate and M&A work, as well as building on its serious organised crime division, employment department, sports law and international arbitration services.

He said: “We are making a very big investment in the growth of the Advantage Law brand at international level and there are few more acquisitions planned for 2018/19.”