Our Expertise

Law Firms – M&A and Regulatory Compliance Advisory

Our Approach

The Law Firm for Law Firms

We can help you in all regulatory and other legal aspects of mergers, acquisitions and restructuring, no matter how complex, on a swift and confidential basis. Whether you are bringing in private equity or another source of funding, acquiring or merging with another firm, disposing of a practice area or restructuring your business we can help at all stages of the matter.

Our market-leading understanding of the regulation of legal services and the structures employed by legal businesses means we can help you navigate complex regulatory boundaries and other transaction issues. Our solution-driven, commercially minded approach turns regulatory compliance into a strategic advantage that actively supports and accelerates your business objectives.

We are regulatory and transactional experts, experienced at advising on, and working with, a variety of corporate and transaction structures, and with extensive experience of working with the SRA to ensure any changes happen smoothly.

A strong team ethic shines through at Kingsley Napley and there is ready support from across the whole team, whose assistance is always quick, accurate and reassuring.

Chambers and Partners _ 2025

The team are especially good at being empathetic towards their clients and taking the time to engage with their wider personal context.

Chambers UK _ 2026

Our Expertise

How we can help

We can advise on all aspects of firm structure changes and regulatory matters including:

Advice on whether a business needs to be regulated or can provide its services outside direct regulation
Regulatory approvals and authorisation advice, including getting authorised as an SRA firm
Buying and selling legal businesses
Partnership structure and ABS conversions, including the pros and cons
Due diligence and authorisation assistance for mergers, acquisitions, restructuring and external investment
Post-merger integration of policies, procedures and controls
Restructuring legal businesses
Moving from bank security into private equity or litigation funding
Step-in rights under security and appointment of a receiver
The impact of the claims management regulations on business structures
Taking advantage of reforms in Arizona, Utah and the UK permitting non-lawyer ownership of law firms.

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Who we work with

Private equity and venture capital investors and their platform companies, law firms growing by merger or acquisition and investment banks all seek us out for insight and assistance with regulation, structure and insight into the US and UK markets and M&A, fundraising and restructuring advice.

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Recent work

We have recently advised on the following matters:

Providing SRA regulatory‑focused vendor due diligence for a large UK law firm subject to an auction sale by its private equity owner, assessing compliance, regulatory risks and operational controls for prospective investors
Advising on the exercise of step-in rights in a group structure which includes an SRA regulated entity
Advising on the establishment of a structure allowing an English private equity owned law firm to acquire a Scottish law firm
Dealing with regulatory due diligence and authorisation on sale of group to private equity
Advising on administration of law firms and SRA regulatory issues
Advising on various options for business structures when setting up as an SRA regulated law firm
Advising on the setting up of a London office by a US law firm