Merger creates largest legal debt recovery firm

SPECIALIST debt litigation law firm Drydens has merged with Fairfax Solicitors to create a 300-strong organisation.

Drydens Lawyers and Fairfax Solicitors are based in Bradford and Leeds respectively and say the merger will create the UK’s largest debt recovery legal practice.

With a combined turnover of approximately £15m the firm will trade as drydensfairfax solicitors.

Drydens’s chairman, Philip Holden, will lead the new entity as chief executive with Peter Wordsworth, the present chief executive of Fairfax, taking on the role of director of client management and business development. 

Law firm Eversheds in Leeds sold its unsecured recoveries business to Fairfax Solicitors in a management buyout (MBO) in 2009.

Drydens was bought by Mr Holden for an undisclosed sum in 2009. Drydens was established in 1984 as a unit of Hammonds.

It was spun off from the law firm in 2003, under the ownership of a group of former and continuing Hammonds partners.

Mr Holden: “This really is a merger in every sense of the word; Drydens is particularly strong on secured recoveries and Fairfax is focused on unsecured and Government work. 

“The new operation combines an excellent debt collection business with an exceptional debt litigation practice.”

Mr Wordsworth said the move was a positive one for clients.

He said: “It is clear that at a time when several of them are looking to integrate their secured and unsecured recoveries operations and all of them are looking for scalable and highly compliant service providers the merger makes perfect sense.”

It is expected the merger will formally complete on April 2. There are plans to move Fairfax’s office to Drydens’s headquarters in Bradford.

Law firm Brabners Chaffe Street’s corporate partner Sam Mabon, and associate Ruth Hargreaves advised Drydens on the merger.

Pinsent Masons in Leeds advised Fairfax Solicitors.