Legal news: Bermans’ flying start; In-house winners
LAW firm Bermans is building on its record year last year with fee income totalling more than £1.3m for the first quarter of this financial year, a 13% increase compared to last year.
The corporate team led by Jon Davage in Manchester and Kieran Donovan in Liverpool has had a particularly busy start with the team advising on 11 transactions made up of three acquisitions, five disposals, two reorganisations and a private equity deal.
One of the most notable deals was the £12m sale of SME UK finance provider Academy Leasing based in Haydock to AIM listed Bristol-headquartered UK finance provider 1pm Plc in a deal which created an enlarged group with a combined loan book value of over £45m.
The corporate team was also recognised regionally for the volume of transactions it has acted on in 2015, being ranked as one of the top 10 corporate teams regionally by deal volume in the Experian Corpfin M&A Advisor league table for the year to date.
Bermans niche invoice and asset finance team has also experienced a strong start with a marked increase in instructions from this time last year.
Senior partner Fergal O’Cleirigh said: “Our invoice and asset finance team are nationally renowned with around 60% of their instructions coming from outside the North West, particularly from London and the South East which is a great achievement for a firm of our size.”
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SUSAN Dennehy, of Manchester-based insurer Swinton has been named In House Lawyer of the Year at the annual North West In House Legal Awards.
The event, which is run by the Law Society’s North Westcommerce and industry group, is now in its fifth year and honours the achievements of lawyers working in house at businesses across the region.
Other winners on the night included Karen Caswell from BAE Systems, Military Air & Information who was named Young In House Lawyer of the Year and API Group which took home the In House Deal of the Year accolade. Online fashion retailer boohoo.com was named In House Team of the Year.
Manchester law firm Pannone Corporate was the headline sponsor and around 350 guests attended the awards at the Hilton Hotel which raised around £20,000 for Cancer Research.
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