Ortus Group was commissioned by a Derby law firm to assist with their succession planning by facilitating their sale to a firm that could ensure continuity and long term security for all staff post-retirement of their senior partner. The sale of the firm led 15 staff members, including the three owners, to join a larger firm seeking to enter Derby, bringing the headcount to 131.
The Mission & Challenge
Originally owned and run by three partners, the law firm with nearly 150 years of heritage and expertise was faced with succession challenges following the impending retirement of their senior partner. This gave the two other partners pause to reflect on what the structure of the ongoing firm should be and they decided to seek an external solution to address this challenge and seek security in the longer term for all staff and clients.
How Ortus Group Approached this Successfully
To help this firm worth achieve this prior to their PII insurance renewal, Ortus Group researched the East Midlands landscape and engaged with the management of all feasible target firms to establish exactly what the regional legal landscape looked like for such an idea.
This engagement led to a shortlist of three interested parties; all of whom Ortus Group introduced to their client and chaired preliminary discussions between. Upon arriving at the mutual decision to pursue a future with the selected firm, Ortus Group facilitated follow up meetings, gathering of due diligence and negotiated heads of terms and sensitivities relating to all manner of issues arising.
Merger and acquisition processes can be challenging. When two firms come together, they have to navigate around company culture, personalities and different professional approaches. Ortus Group leveraged on their deep understanding of personalities and temperaments to provide careful counsel surrounding the appropriate language used around relaying messages to individuals involved to ensure a successful and mutually beneficial outcome.
As an effective go-between, Ortus Group helped to avoid tricky issues and interactions that risked hindering both parties from starting on an optimally positive foot.
Ortus Group helped to avoid tricky issues and interactions that risked hindering both parties from starting on an optimally positive foot.
The End Result
The firm was successfully sold to a regional heavyweight with a 200 year history in the span of 10 months. The partnership of these two historic firms has further reinforced their service offerings to their respective clients bases and facilitated the next stage of development of a new city market for the large regional firm.
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