Local expansion is key to future security
Merging with like-minded local practices can help your firm reach a more sustainable size, consolidate its geographical position, and secure client loyalty, says Maureen Cawthorn
Established in 1886 and incorporated in 2012, Wilkinson Woodward has long embodied an ethos of serving the local community.
Earlier this year local practice Bearders expressed an interest in merging. For us, this was an opportunity to develop our business further. The two firms eventually merged last month. For us, this merger follows a well-worn path of local partnership deals, joining forces with like-minded firms to produce a more specialist legal offering to locally based clients.
We have had a presence in Halifax for a while and in 2000 we opened in neighbouring Huddersfield. Soon after, we merged with Boococks, a nearby practice in our traditional home town of Halifax. This brought with it a thriving estate agency and heralded a diversification from legal services for the first time in the firm's history. In 2007 and 2011, the practice acquired two Regency style buildings close to Huddersfield University and proceeded to merge with commercial property practice Norcliffe & Co. Today we have 17 people working from our Huddersfield base.
This latest merger with Bearders - a private client practice - allows us to build on a solid base and add specialities which Bearders have not previously offered, such as family work, personal injury and employment. It was also partly driven by the need to increase privately funded work, to offset the reduction in publicly funded work as a result of reforms to legal aid. In addition, the merger completes a geographical triangle, covering the three closely adjoining commercial centres of Halifax, Huddersfield and Brighouse overlapping the two local authorities of Calderdale and Kirklees. Our client base, which includes Kirklees MBC, Wakefield MBC and local insurer Covéa, has been significantly strengthened by the two mergers with Bearders and Norcliffe & Co.
Following the merger with Bearders, we are also committed to supporting the Bearder charity, of which ex-Bearders' partner, Richard Smithies, is a trustee. The charity was set up in 1992 to benefit the people of Calderdale, supporting both individual and community projects across the Calder Valley.
The drive towards consolidation in the regional legal marketplace continues at pace. For us, expansion within Calderdale and Kirklees remains a focus for the years ahead. In doing so, we expect to continue meeting the increasingly sophisticated legal requirements of our clients while building ?on long established goodwill and trust. SJ
Maureen Cawthorn is managing director at Wilkinson Woodward