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Law firms will need a turnover of at least £75m to list on the stock exchange, a leading investment banker said this week. This is because “the public markets prefer larger businesses at the moment” and smaller ones may struggle with liquidity.

The magic circle firms could be worth £6.7bn if they went public – equivalent to £3.9m for each partner – the first stockbroker assessment of the viability of law firm listing has estimated. An analyst note from Peel Hunt LLP said there is “a real economic case” to be made for public market listing.

Irwin Mitchell today became the first major law firm to announce its intention to seek external investment. The Sheffield-headquartered national practice has appointed Espirito Santo Investment Bank as its financial adviser to review the options.

Before we all get too excited by the thought of law firms floating next year (and I’m as bad as the next hack – I would donate a non-essential organ in return for breaking the story of the first firm here to do it), it took Slater & Gordon seven years from starting to look at its options to reach the point of listing. That doesn’t mean every firm would take so long, but it does indicate how deeply firms need to examine it. Has anyone being doing that for nearly enough time to allow them to push the button in the next year?

In the final part of his series on external investment in law firms, Jeremy Black of Deloitte explains that private equity firms have one goal – to make money – and briefly looks at the implications of raising funds through listing.