Gateley partners have made almost £6.4m from selling shares in the firm, according to a filing with the London Stock Exchange.

Partners have sold 5,761,971 shares at a sale price of £1.11 to new and existing shareholders. Gateley floated on London's AIM market in June last year, becoming the first UK law firm to go public, with the firm recouping £5m from the float and partners taking home £25m.

The new stock exchange filing shows that five partners have sold shares worth more than £300,000 – CEO Michael Ward (£365,079), COO Peter Davies (£333,000), joint managing partner Paul Hayward (£364,080), corporate restructuring partner Brendan McGeever (£355,200) and commercial property partner Callum Nuttall (£321,797) – all of who are members of the firm's strategic board.

Manchester managing partner Rod Waldie has sold shares worth £219,047, while finance director Neil Smith and partners Katie Silvester and George Parker-Fuller have disposed of shares ranging in value from £22,521 to £28,081.

On the firm's admission to AIM last year, Gateley's partners entered into a five-year lock-in agreement, which meant that they were only allowed to sell 10% of their shares in any 12-month period. The latest tranche of share sales account for 5.4% of the total issued capital. Institutional investors purchased 5,150,000 shares and employees of the firm acquired 611,971.

The firm recently launched an employee share scheme to give its employees the opportunity to acquire shares in the firm.

The firm's chairman Nigel Payne said: "I'm delighted to welcome new institutional shareholders on to the register and am equally pleased with internal demand from employees recognising the evolution and significant opportunities available to the business."

The firm has made a number of acquisitions in the aftermath of going public, in line with its stated strategy of using the proceeds from the float to expand its business.

In April, the firm paid £2.72m to acquire tax incentives advisory business Capitus. It followed that in September with the acquisition of Birmingham-based property consultancy Hamer Associates in a £2.05m deal.