Market monitor

Several listed legal businesses surged ahead of the market during 2019, with regional law firm Knights providing investors with a particularly rich return, a Legal Futures analysis has shown.

Knights has unveiled the sixth acquisition in its 18 months as a listed firm to boost its recently established presence in Birmingham. Fellow listed firm Rosenblatt has hired a former Met Police commissioner.

The listed legal sector is a “clear outperformer” against broader markets, with “many more” law firms – both corporate and consumer – likely to come to market, a new analysis has found.

The joint venture between NAHL plc – which owns marketing network National Accident Helpline – and Bristol-based law firm Lyons Davidson has collapsed, it emerged today.

A US-based legal services provider with a London-based alternative business structure focused on processing  routine contract documents is steadily building its European client base.

A former specialist personal injury firm which has diversified into other kinds of volume litigation could quadruple in size by the end of next year.

Marketing collective First4Lawyers has unveiled a new lead generation model that it says allows firms to pay a fee per enquiry while complying with the referral fee ban.

The Ministry of Justice – whose budget has faced major cuts over the past decade – faces having to pay up to £1bn in pensions for part-time judges, according to the claimants’ solicitors.

The seventh law firm to list – although it describes itself as an asset management consultancy – raised £31.4m as its shares began trading last week. MJ Hudson had a market capitalisation of £98m.

The chairman of the Bar Council has hit back at criticism of his attendance at a Chinese legal conference that did not address human rights in the country, saying he was “not an apologist for the Chinese regime”.