Rosenblatt Solicitors will float on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) to support its growth ambitions and help it attract and retain talent.
The independent City firm, established in 1989, will become the fourth UK law firm to go public next month, following Gateley in 2015, and Gordon Dadds and Keystone Law last year.
Rosenblatt chief executive Nicola Foulston said the funding would support growth in its core of dispute resolution and allow it to take advantage of ‘disruption in the UK legal marketplace’. She added: ‘Our decision to seek a listing on AIM is an exciting step in the development of Rosenblatt… Dispute resolution is a growing market with London set to remain the biggest international centre for this work.’
The listing would also allow the firm to better align its remuneration with the overall performance of the firm, Foulston said. ‘By being able to offer a broader range of equity participation, it will help us to attract and retain talent at all levels.’
Rosenblatt recently acted for Richard Desmond’s Northern & Shell in the high-profile £127m sale of its newspaper business to Trinity Mirror, marking the end of Desmond’s 43-year-long publishing career. The firm had previously acted for his media group on other deals including the purchase and sale of Channel 5, the sale of Portland TV and the purchase of The Health Lottery.
The listing of law firms has gathered relative pace in the last eight months, with Gordon Dadds and Keystone Law only listing in August and December last year, respectively. Gateley chief executive Michael Ward, whose own firm raised £30m in its landmark 2015 listing, recently told Legal Business he believes further listing activity is to come, describing a potential ‘acceleration’ in the market.