Growth plan for LHS after merger

A MANCHESTER law firm has been merged with its sister company and is on a major growth drive.

Lewis Hymanson Small is being combined with south London-based Abbey Legal Services and is being rebranded as LHS Solicitors. The enlarged practice has fee income of £12m a year, but the firm, which is owned by New York-listed  insurance and investment company Markel Corporation wants to triple this figure in the next five years.

As part of the expansion plans, LHS which has 120 staff in Manchester and Croydon, is looking for a new office in Manchester.
 
Abbey Legal is part of Abbey Protection, which acquired Lewis Hymanson Smalll in 2013 before it was in itself sold to Markel.  It has around 250,000 business clients in the UK ranging from SMEs to plcs. It handles around 200,000 phone calls per year to its legal advice call centre and clients include the Federation of Small Businesses.

LHS is nationally recognised for its expertise in regulatory and criminal law and acts for the Police Superintendents’ Association of England & Wales and the Chief Police Officers Staff Association (CPOSA). It also has employment, litigation and business law services.

The focus for the new LHS brand will be to scale up activity in four key areas: regulatory and criminal, telephone legal advice, business legal services and corporate work.

Managing director Richard Candy  said: “This merger and re-brand makes perfect sense and is in line with the strategic vision we set out when we became an ABS and then acquired LHS back in 2013.  Combining the resources of Abbey Legal and LHS and sharing our expertise across one recognisable brand focuses our sales and marketing plan and delivers a more seamless and consistent client service.

“We’re ambitious but confident in our vision to triple the fee income in the practice within five years. We’re delighted to lead our employees forward in this new direction.”

Ian Lewis, senior partner at LHS added:”It has always been part of the strategic vision to scale the LHS brand to a wider market in terms of legal services to businesses. We intend to keep growing the firm and move forward together with a compelling strategy to continue competing with the premier law firms in the country with our regulatory, crime and business law services.”