DWF, a law firm noted for its motor finance speciality, has acquired the finance litigation team of Chafes Solicitors, as well as the business and assets of Cobbetts, and merged with professional indemnity practice Fishburns LLP.
The entire finance litigation team at Chafes, including head of lender services John Perez and head of debt and asset recovery Julia Williams, has moved to DWF. The transfer will also see all of Chafes’ lender clients relocated to the DWF banking and finance team as the firm seeks to break into the UK top 20 legal service providers.
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DWF said the appointment of Perez, as a partner, and Williams, as a director, would strengthen both its national asset finance and existing motor finance recovery legal services; giving the firm a "dominant position in the motor finance sector", according to a company statement.
The acquisition of Cobbetts sees 491 of its staff and 72 partners move from offices in Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham and London to existing DWF offices within the next few weeks. It will not include Cobbett’s finance litigation team, which joins Leeds-based legal services provider Walker Morris, or Incasso, the firm’s debt recovery team, although short-term management of client affairs will be handled by DWF.
Cobbetts had reported poor trading in November and December and obtained an interim statutory moratorium to enable its sale. The appointment of KPMG as administrators confirmed that sale.
With the Fishburns merger, DWF believes it will strengthen its presence in London as well as gain access to Bristol and Dublin markets through Fishburns’ offices. The combined company will now employ more than 2,000 people across 13 offices in the UK and Ireland.
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By GlobalDataIn summer 2011 DWF opened offices in Birmingham and hired Joanne Davis from Shoosmiths as partner heading up the firm’s asset and consumer finance team. DWF’s asset finance arm was further expanded in October 2011, with services extended to Scotland in summer 2012.
richard.brown@timetric.com
