For comparison, more than £1.5bn PE investment has poured into UK legal services since 2019. However, the research shows investors have diversified into different practice areas.
It found investors sidestepping personal injury and instead targeting specialist areas such as healthcare, Court of Protection, family law and employment. The anticipated breakthrough of PE into top 100 corporate UK law firms has not materialised, with no PE investment since DWF in 2023.
Jeff Zindani, managing director at Acquira Professional Services, said: ‘While overall investment values have reduced over the past year, the volume of transactions and the number of active private equity investors entering the market continue to grow. Investor focus is now broadening into specialist and scalable areas of legal services, bypassing the traditional corporate law practices.’
