Mills & Reeve to merge with Manchester firm George Davies

National law firm Mills & Reeve is to merge with Manchester practice George Davies in a deal that will see the combined firm have 112 partners and 870 staff.

Both firms have backed the deal, which will complete on 1 June 2013. The merged practice will have offices in Birmingham, Cambridge, Leeds, London, Manchester and Norwich.

Guy Hinchley, Mills & Reeve managing partner, said: “This merger will enable us to grow our presence in the North substantially and to progress our strategy of providing a full range of legal services to clients in our key sectors.

“We are very excited about the potential that our increased scale gives us in the North and the further career opportunities that it creates for the talented lawyers and business support professionals in our enlarged firm.”

Mark Hovell, managing partner of George Davies, added: “As a well established, profitable, Manchester firm we have had regular approaches from firms looking to establish or strengthen their presence in the Manchester marketplace.

“We chose to merge with Mills & Reeve as we have a lot of synergy with them and their culture closely reflects ours. This merger will enable us to offer our clients access to a wider range of legal services and specialist sector advice from the Mills & Reeve national practice and international networks and also to pursue new clients who have previously been beyond our reach.”