Knights acquires 100-strong firm which traces history back to 1876

Knights chief executive David Beech has told Insider that the takeover of Thursfields is part of its strategy to almost double the number of offices it has across the country to 40 within the next three to four years.

Thursfields, which employs about 100 people, has offices in Worcester, Birmingham, Kidderminster and Solihull.

It is Knight's 20th acquisition since it floated six years ago, a strategy that has taken it up to about 1,500 staff. The deal should complete by 14 September.

"The deal was done very quickly. We'd been in talks formally for about three months although we were chatting to them for a month before that," Beech told Insider. "There was a clear cultural fit between the two businesses - Thursfields is technically a proper business with ten shareholders, although it still has something of the feel of a quasi partnership.

"Thursfields has real strengths in areas like corporate and private wealth, but for us the greatest attraction is its location in Worcester, between our offices in Birmingham and Cheltenham. We can develop it so we dominate that local market.

"It is a major step in our plans. We want to take our network of offices from 23 now to about 40 within the next three to four years."

In recent years, Thursfields has transformed from a traditional law firm into a corporatised provider of legal services with a national client base.

"Knights is a business with a similar ethos to Thursfields, with a strong culture which cultivates collaboration across its offices, to the benefit of client service," added Thursfields managing partner Michelle O'Hara. "We look forward to working closely with the team and leveraging Knights' scale, reputation and extensive capabilities, to unlock our future growth potential."

Knights was one of the first law firms to float, debuting on the stock exchange in 2018 with a £103m value.

Since then it has been on a national acquisition programme, which has included buying established Midland names such as Fraser Brown in Nottingham, Spearing Waite and Cummins in Leicester, and Dakeyne EMMS Gilmore Liberson in Birmingham.

In its last results Knights made an £11.5m pre-tax profit on a £142m turnover.