Ben is joined by James Geary and Hassan Shah, Managing Partner and Partner respectively at EMW Law. Hassan joined the firm as part of a merger, with his own firm SP Law becoming part of the EMW family.
This deal expanded the range of services available to clients of both firms. SP’s specialties lay more in private law practices such as employment and property law, while EMW’s services are more focused on commercial law, such as mergers and acquisitions and other business-related services.
EMW Law and SP Law Merger
The merger was first discussed around a year ago. EMW have an ambition to double in size over the next decade, with around two-thirds of that growth coming from mergers and acquisitions. Meanwhile, SP had grown from two partners in 2005 to 35 employees at their peak but felt that they had hit a ceiling of growth. An SP employee had moved to EMW and returned to their old workplace on an unrelated matter, but that visit started conversations about a merger.
Hassan said he wasn’t looking for a merger, but the prospect made sense for the firm. EMW wanted to expand their presence in Northampton, so SP was an ideal candidate for a merger.
Both businesses emphasised the importance of the two sides being a cultural fit, and James says that other attempted mergers had failed at this key step. Furthermore, operations need to be able to integrate with minimal friction. In hindsight, the two feel they may not have focused enough on the operational aspect, even if the cultural integration was very successful.
The General Election
The episode ends with a brief discussion of the forthcoming election. James says that usually there is either a slow down near an election if the outcome is unclear, or a rush to get things done if a less business-friendly government is likely to be coming in. However, neither of these trends appears to have manifested this time. Ben suggests that this is due to the amount of disruption in recent times making businesses more resilient to turbulence, preferring to continue to do business and react appropriately to any changes resulting from a change of government.
Watch and listen to the full episode here:
