West End firm Gordon Dadds has rescued another ailing firm by acquiring Jeffrey Russell Green (JGR) following a pre-pack administration, creating a full service firm.
The tie-up brings Gordon Dadds into the last quartile of the LB100, with turnover of £30m.
Under the terms of the deal completed late on Friday 2 October, ‘most’ of the current directors of JGR will become partners at Gordon Dadds and transfer their practices and clients, following a pre-pack deal after the appointment of an administrator to JGR.
The deal follows Gordon Dadds’ rescue of beleaguered Davenport Lyons in late April last year, in which it brought over the client database, the lion’s share of assets and most of Davenport’s partnership, in a pre-pack deal that took place before anyone outside of the two firms or its accountant Baker Tilly was aware that the firm had gone into administration on Friday 25 April.
Having also picked up City-based litigation and corporate firm Harris Cartier in 2013, Gordon Dadds managing partner Adrian Biles told Legal Business it was the firm’s aim to become a top 100 UK firm.
The strategy so far has been to bring into the fold those firms hit harder by the recession and Biles said at the time: ‘As the economy comes out of recession and business increases, the working capital requirement of firms who are building up working processes and as debt increases, it is probably now that the strain will show on firms with cash flow difficulties than a firm at the beginning of the recession.’
On its latest union, Biles said: ‘Our ambition is to provide the very best platform for their many talents, freeing them from the constraints of high-cost central London administration and equipping them with cutting edge technology, systems and processes. This will be our management team’s third integration of a significant team in under two years.’
JGR chair Philip Cohen added: ‘We are well known for our heavyweight litigation, lending, commercial and licensing expertise and see joining with Gordon Dadds as the best way of improving the depth, breadth and coverage of our service to our clients. Our business and our valued clients stand to benefit in a number of ways too from Gordon Dadds’ highly efficient administration and IT centre, based in Cardiff.
‘Unfortunately, we could not take all our support services staff with us – I am extremely grateful to them for their past services to us – but we are already helping them to find new jobs within a buoyant London economy. Our fee-earners are hugely enthusiastic for this deal and for what they will be able to achieve in their new home.’
sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk