Lawfront acquires Trethowans, taking group fee-income to over £130m

Private equity-backed law firm consolidator Lawfront announced today (20 May) that Trethowans has joined the fast-growing legal services group, in Lawfront’s largest acquisition to date. This is Lawfront’s sixth large regional firm acquisition and the thirteenth acquisition in total, taking group fee income to over £130m, well on the way to achieving its goal of £150m in revenue and sit within the UK top 50 in 2025. The group is backed by private equity firm Blixt Group.

Trethowans is a leading firm in the South and South West of England, based in Southampton, Salisbury, Winchester, Bournemouth and Poole.

Lawfront’s strategy is to buy out leading regional law firms that have “a strong brand for client service, a dedication to their people, and management teams that have a history of delivering profitable growth.” Trethowans’ growth has been impressive over recent years, and the firm is approaching £30m revenue.

Lawfront announced last year that it has chosen ShareDo (now part of Clio) to support its growth strategy and ongoing digital transformation. One of the problems that Lawfront is solving is helping regional mid-sized law firms to replace legacy practice management systems and case management systems. The future Lawfront Platform based on ShareDo will provide a cloud native PMS for all core functions, with a workflow CMS.

Neil Lloyd, Lawfront’s CEO, said: “Lawfront are increasingly seen as the leading consolidator in the regional full service legal market: backing firms’ management teams, preserving their client facing brands, enhancing the prospects of their people and bringing to bear considerable experience in marketing, IT, finance, people and compliance. The high-quality firms, such as Trethowans, that have partnered with Lawfront are testament to our leading position. We provide a very credible alternative to the equity partnership model of ownership, addressing concerns of succession, legacy and the scale of investment required to remain competitive. I really look forward to working with [Trethowans’ managing partner] Mike Watson and his team to continue and accelerate Trethowans’s growth.”