North East legal firms set for split
LESS than a year after a merger which created one of the region’s biggest commercial law firms, Mincoff and Jacksons are to go their separate ways.
Stockton-based Jacksons merged with Newcastle’s Mincoff last October to form a firm with 21 partners and 160 staff called Mincoff Jacksons.
At the time they said it was an “ideal marriage of similar firms with a similar general ethos” and “a merger of equals”.
However, a senior member of the firm at its Stockton office confirmed a divorce was imminent with both sides set to regain their independence.
The company has not yet made a formal statement. Earlier this month two former senior Mincoff staff moved to a rival firm.
Henry Cave, who had headed the Mincoff Jacksons commercial property team, and Richard Arnot, who had been its head of licensing, joined Newcastle-based Watson Burton.
The news surprised the legal services sector, but some speculated on whether there had been difficulties blending business cultures, while other said perhaps too little had been done to cross the geographical divide.
The merged Mincoff Jacksons was headed by the senior partners of the previous independent practices, Howard Gold of Mincoff and Kevin Fletcher of 130-year-old Jacksons.
One of the reasons given for the merger in October was that “today’s commercial legal market now demands larger firms with experts in different fields, and the extended range of specialists meant the larger firm would be able to attract additional clients such as local authorities”.
At the time of the merger a Mincoff partner hailed the move as “an ideal marriage, we are similar firms, we have a similar general ethos, and we will be able to provide our clients with similar sort of services at a similar cost”.
At the time of the merger Jacksons had 13 partners while Mincoff had a turnover of around £4m and employed 32 solicitors including eight partners.
The combined firm, which became one of the five biggest in the region, operated from two offices in Newcastle and Teesside.
