LAW firm Aberdein Considine has made its first foray into the English marketplace by taking over Newcastle-based Waller Solicitors.
Rob Aberdein, who heads Aberdein Considine’s lender services practice, said the deal would allow the firm to offer debt recovery and litigation services to a range of banks south of the border for the first time.
The firm acts for banks including Lloyds, RBS and Santander, helping them recover debts such as mortgage arrears and personal loans in addition to handling legal matters for banks that lend for commercial and residential property purchases.
“We’ve done really well in the last 10 years to grow our client base but there’s little more we can do in Scotland because we’ve reached saturation point,” he said.
“The opportunities in England are exponential because eight per cent of the work we could get from banks is in Scotland but 89 per cent is in England and Wales.”
Mr Aberdein added that his firm had known Wallers, which operates in the same space, for around 10 years.
All employees of Wallers, which was previously part of Newcastle firm Hay & Kilner Solicitors, have moved across to Aberdein Considine, which has also hired former HL Interactive chief executive Matt Wightman.
HL Interactive was a debt-recovery legal practice that was acquired by English law firm Irwin Mitchell in 2014.
Mr Wightman, who has joined Aberdein Considine to lead the Newcastle office, had led a management buyout of HL Interactive in 2009.
Aberdein Considine has financed the Wallers acquisition through the extension of a credit facility it has with RBS in addition to a term loan from the bank.
The combined firm now employs 380 staff and turns over in the region of £22 million, 30 per cent of which is generated in its legal division and 30 per cent in financial services with the remaining 40 per cent coming from its property business.
The acquisition comes after Aberdein Considine expanded into Glasgow three years ago and Stirling in 2014 before bolstering its Glasgow presence earlier this year with the acquisition of property and legal practice A&S Ireland.
The firm first opened an own-branded property branch in Shawlands, followed by a legal office in St Vincent Street last May. The A&S Ireland deal added offices in Newton Mearns, the west end and city centre.
In November 2014 the firm acquired two-partner Stirling firm Muirhead Buchanan and in May this year it took over Glasgow-based estate agency and legal practice A&S Ireland.
Mr Aberdein said that while further expansion will be in the firm’s future, for now it is focusing on ensuring its latest deals have time to bed down.
“This is probably the end of the expansion in the short term,” he said.
“We would probably like to expand further in Edinburgh and Dundee and Inverness would be interesting but that’s for the future.”
Aberdein Considine was founded in 1981 by Aberdeen lawyers Harvey Aberdein and Iain Considine.
Harvey Aberdein continued to run the firm until late 2014, when he handed over day-to-day management to current managing partner Jacqueline Law but remains at the firm as a consultant.
Mr Considine is still a partner at the firm, working between its offices in Banchory and Stonehaven.
Ms Law called the Wallers acquisition “hugely exciting” for the firm, adding that “the opportunities in England are huge”.
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