MORE than a century of legal history will come to an end in the new year with the disappearance of the name of one of the North East's longest-established law firms.

Months of negotiations finally came to a successful conclusion last week when Newcastle-based firm Crutes sealed the terms of its merger with national outfit DWF.

The deal will see the Crutes name, which dates back 104 years, disappear from January 1, a matter of some regret for the firm’s managing partner Helen Ager.

But she said that the sadness at the loss of the firm’s identity and independence was heavily outweighed by the positives resulting from the deal.

And Ager predicted the tie-up would be good news for the North East too, as the enlarged firm will have the chance to pursue an ambitious growth strategy.

“I think that we have recognised for several years that the legal market is going to continue on the trend towards consolidation and we have also recognise that there is a limit to what a firm of our size can achieve alone,” she said.

“While recognising that we may need to become part of a larger entity, we didn’t want to make the wrong move. We have been considering some type of merger for a long time. We just wanted to make sure it was the right one.”