Berrymans takes the high road with Scottish merger
BERRYMAN Lace Mawer, the insurance-focused natonal law firm, has announced a merger with Scottish practice HBM Sayers.
The deal will create a £100m business with 170 partners and 630 lawyers and technical experts and a total of 1,550 employees when it completes on May 1.
The enlarged firm, to be called BLM, will operate from 12 offices across England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
Berrymans, headquartered on King Street West, Manchester, has more than 700 staff in the North West. In 2013 fee income from its Manchester and Liverpool offices accounted fro £36.7m out of the £84.6m total.
Mike Brown, senior partner at Berrymans Lace Mawer, said: “We’re excited about helping our clients to save time and money reducing risk, resolving disputes and managing claims. As BLM we will be able to do that across more lines of business and in more locations for more clients. The combination will give us a competitive edge at a time when Scotland’s legal market is changing, presenting our business with significant opportunities.”
David Taylor, chair of the HBM Sayers management board, added: “BLM will be about more than just claims. It will be a modern risk and insurance law business. Although we work with many of the top global insurers, our client base also includes large numbers of corporate insured businesses, and health and public sector bodies. We’ll be unique in the way that we’re embedded in the wider risk and insurance world.
He continued: “Both businesses have been open about their ambitions to grow. This is absolutely right because we share many of the same clients and have a similar style and approach to meeting the needs of those clients. The things clients say they like about Berrymans Lace Mawer are the same things that they say they like about HBM Sayers. “
