Capita to move into legal market with Optima deal
CAPITA has announced it has reached a conditional agreement to acquire Optima Legal Services, including its subsidiary Cost Advocates, for an undisclosed sum.
Optima Legal provides legal services for property transactions, debt recovery and litigation services, while Cost Advocates provides legal costs drafting and negotiation services.
It operates from offices in Bradford, Newcastle and London and its clients include many of the UK’s largest financial services providers.
The acquisition, subject to approval by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and the successful granting of an alternative business structure licence, will become part of Capita Legal Services, a new, wholly-owned subsidiary of Capita.
It will provide regulated and non-regulated legal services for lender, insurance, government, legal, and corporate markets.
James Cowan, head of Capita Legal Services, said: “Because of the way globalisation and the recession is driving the agenda towards efficient, effective and value for money services, clients require greater streamlined legal panels and more effective in-house legal teams. The proposed acquisition of Optima Legal will create a 600 person strong legal services team, with 150 legally qualified personnel and 50 solicitors, adding scale, depth and range to the legal services we are able to offer law firms, insurers, financial services companies and the wider corporate sector.”
Senior litigation partner at Optima Philip Robinson added: “This is an exciting time for Optima Legal, Cost Advocates and all our clients. Capita’s ownership will allow us to accelerate our growth plans and build a stronger business and service proposition.”
Optima was told by the SRA to sever links with the outsourcing giant in 2010 after it found their relationship breached rules governing non-lawyer investment in firms.
