Wragges sizes up City merger options as growth push continues

Wragge & Co has confirmed that it is seeking a London merger, with the firm open to the possibility of a tie-up with a fellow UK top 50 firm.

The UK top 30 firm is looking for a tie-up to bolster its City offering and is targeting either a smaller firm with a number of niche practice areas or a London boutique.

Specific practice areas of interest for Wragges include financial services, corporate, pensions, projects, employment and technology.

Wragges senior partner Quentin Poole (pictured) commented: "We're in a reasonable expansion mode and the back end of a recession is a good time to look for merger opportunities. We're open to a potential London merger, provided that it will strategically give us something that we don't already have or will strengthen our existing portfolio. A full-service mid-tier firm probably wouldn't work for us."

Internationally, Poole highlighted the firm's dedicated intellectual property practice in Germany as a possible target for international expansion through a local merger, while he also did not rule out a tie-up with a UK firm that has existing international offices.

The hunt for a City deal underlines the increasing shift in Wragges' ambitions towards expansion beyond its Birmingham heartland in favour of London and international markets.

Poole added: "The biggest problem is there aren't a great number of good firms looking for a merger right now. Many of the firms that are actively seeking a merger are probably doing so because they have problems of their own. We need a quality merger partner that won't just dilute the Wragges brand."

The news comes after Legal Week revealed on 3 June that Clyde & Co and Barlow Lyde & Gilbert are in advanced merger talks, with a potential deal set to create a £300m law firm in the largest-ever union between two UK practices.

A number of merger deals involving major UK firms have taken place over the past year, such as the tie-ups creating Hogan Lovells, SNR Denton and Squire Sanders Hammonds.