Tuckers & Murray Brankin Solicitors merge
Tuckers Solicitors and Murray Brankin Solicitors are delighted to announce the merger of their two firms which completed this week. Tuckers is the largest criminal legal aid provider in the country and Murray Brankin Solicitors has a strong reputation in its local Coventry market and provides an obvious synergy with Tuckers established practice in Birmingham.
Adam Makepeace, Practice Director of Tuckers Solicitors said of the merger “Following our recent merger with Kent Solicitors in London, we are pleased to be able to continue with our plans to join with other like-minded criminal defence firms to try and battle through the multitude of problems that criminal defence firms face – in terms of managing to survive in the face of stagnant legal aid rates, falling case volumes, the farce of cases currently “released under investigation” and the need for efficiencies through digitalisation.
We have again been able to migrate all Murray Brankin’s cases into our case management environment from their LEAP system resulting in a very smooth handover and we are pleased to be seemingly up and running so quickly.”
Karl Brankin, principle at Murray Brankin and now Partner at Tuckers Solicitors added “On the news that my Partner, David Murray, was leaving to take up a judicial post – the prospect of carrying the full burden of regulatory and compliance responsibilities with the LAA and SRA whilst acting as both COFA and COLP was not particularly attractive. This merger will enable me to concentrate on criminal defence work as my priority. The benefits of being able to jump straight into a case management environment that we would never have been able to afford as a small firm are immediately obvious. We will continue to offer a quality, professional and local service to clients underpinned by the impressive infrastructure of Tuckers.”
The merger follows the established practice of Tuckers seeking partnerships with firms that have strong existing brands within their local communities and facilitating them “plugging in” to the best digital infrastructure available within the criminal defence sector and leaning on the management support available within the Tuckers back office set up. Those firms can then continue to operate their businesses within their local market, subject to following the case management workflow, which ensures “compliance by default” in terms of matching up to the audit requirements that are imposed upon firms. Tuckers is in current talks with other firms at the moment and whilst it envisages taking a few months to ensure the proper integration of Kent Solicitors and Murray Brankin, it is hopeful that there will be further merger activity during the course of this year.