Member Article

DWF growth boosted by string of mergers

A series of successful mergers have boosted growth at law firm DWF in the last six months, as turnover rose by 7.6% like-for-like.

The company, which has bases in 11 locations in the UK including Birmingham, Manchester and London, announced a “year of unprecedented change” alongside growth of 39%.

Mergers with Scottish law firm Biggart Baillie, Newcastle-based Crutes and Birmingham firm Buller Jeffries gave the DWF a significant boost in comparison with the results from October last year.

The law firm said continued recruitment and expansion had enabled it to establish a stronger foothold in its different locations, particularly in Scotland.

The results mark DWF’s 19th year of consecutive growth, and the company said it created 201 new jobs (a rise of 11%) and now employs over 1,800 people in the UK.

Chief Executive and Managing Partner, Andrew Leaitherland commented: “It would have been easy for us to stand still this year, but we made a conscious decision to seize an opportunity and grow.

“Quite simply, we will be successful by improving standards and by raising the bar around client service. If we get that right our clients will prosper and so will we.

“We have ambitions to be a top 20 law firm by 2015 and our strong internal values, talented people, and commitment to working closely with our expanding portfolio of clients means we have a solid platform to build on and meet these targets.”

DWF pledged to continue its strategy of reinvestment in business support teams and legal experts after a 21% net profit increase and an all-time high of £102m turnover in the last financial year.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Miranda Dobson .