Bristol law firm Metcalfes Solicitors, which last week bought city-based rival Burroughs Day out of administration, has itself been taken over by Gordon Dadds Group, the acquisitive legal and professional services business.
London-based Gordon Dadds is paying £2m in cash over a five-year period for Metcalfes, which had fee income of £2.69m in the year to June 30, 2017, and achieved a profit before members’ profit shares of £670,000. 
Gordon Dadds said it expects the acquisition of Metcalfes – the latest in a flurry of takeover activity by the group – to be “significantly” earnings enhancing in its first full year to March 31, 2019.
Metcalfes was formed through the 1989 merger of long-established Bristol firms F.E. Metcalfe & Co and Peter Bennett & Co. Its largest areas of activity include clinical negligence, property, non-volume personal injury, private client and family and dispute resolution work from a generally high net worth individual and corporate client base.
Last week it acquired the goodwill and certain assets of Burroughs Day, a Bristol rival that could trace its roots back to 1829. Burroughs Day collapsed into administration due to rising costs and falling turnover.
The enlarged business, which includes nearly 80 former Burroughs Day employees, has since been trading as Metcalfes Solicitors.
Gordon Dadds said it believed the enlarged Metcalfes Solicitors should generate annual fee income of at least £4m while the cost base will benefit from significant overhead savings, including merged offices in Queen Square and improved resource management.
As well as the basic consideration of £2m, additional payments will be made if Metcalfes generates fees of more than £20m over the five years following completion of the deal. 
Gordon Dadds said the acquisition, which will be funded from existing cash resources, demonstrated its ability to grow its existing business through “opportunistic, attractively valued deals and will provide significant cross-selling opportunities across divisions”.
Gordon Dadds chief executive officer Adrian Biles said: “Metcalfes is a profitable and very well-regarded firm of solicitors in Bristol with whom we have worked to integrate the Burroughs Day business.
“We are confident that the enlarged business can be developed into a significant as well as a respected and highly profitable business under the leadership of [managing partner] Anthony Heath and his team. Bristol complements Gordon Dadds’ other locations and is a fertile area for developing a high-quality offering to corporate and private clients.
“This deal closely follows the group’s recent acquisition of White & Black Ltd, a growing specialist technology solicitors firm. We continue to have a strong acquisition pipeline which we expect will enhance earnings and the reach of the group even further.”
Gordon Dadds bought London and Oxfordshire-based White & Black last week for £1m. The firm specialises in technology and corporate law and related intellectual property and dispute work and has a substantial international client base, with a particularly strong presence in the Far East, made up mainly of corporate, private equity and investment clients. 
Metcalfes managing partner Anthony Heath, pictured, said: “The opportunity to acquire the business of Burroughs Day and to work with their team and clients is an exciting and major step forward for Metcalfes. In addition, being a member of the Gordon Dadds Group will enable our enlarged team to extend the range and depth of the services we are able to offer our clients.”
Although headquartered in London, Gordon Dadds has a significant back office and technology platform in Cardiff.
Originally known as Work Group, it changed its name last year to Gordon Dadds. It has a twin-track consolidation model which integrates mid-market law firms under its Gordon Dadds brand and acquires smaller firms which continue to trade under their own name via its Prolegal acquisition vehicle.
Last November it also acquired CW Energy, a leading independent tax consultancy in the oil and gas industry last year for up to £8m.
Shares in Gordon Dadds, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange, climbed by 11% following announcement of the Metcalfes acquisition.
