The new firm will be called Mills & Reeve and will continue to be based at Monument Place in London.
Maxwell Winward, which was created in 2007 following a merger between Maxwell Batley and Winward Fearon, is renowned for its real estate, surety, projects and construction practices.
The merger, which will take effect from 1 June 2017, will allow Mills & Reeve to further develop its real estate and projects and construction practices in London. In addition, the enhanced scale will provide further opportunities across its unique set of sector specialisms such as education, health, private wealth, insurance, technology, sport, charities and food and agri-business.
Nationally Mills & Reeve will have 116 partners and nearly 1,000 staff operating from seven offices in Birmingham, Cambridge, Leeds, London, Manchester, Norwich and Oxford.
Justin Ripman, Mills & Reeve senior partner, said: “This merger will enable us to substantially grow our presence in the City. It helps realise a key aim of our 2020 strategy to expand our offering to London based and international clients by successfully leveraging our nationwide network of leading legal experts.
“Indeed, the merger will enhance our real estate investment and insurance sectors, as well as our projects and construction practice. Maxwell Winward’s surety practice bridges the insurance and construction sectors in which we’re already strong while its power plant expertise will add another area of know-how to our projects offering.
“We are very excited about the potential that our increased scale gives us in London and the further career opportunities that it creates for the talented lawyers, business services professionals and legal support staff in our enlarged firm.”
Adrian Luto, Maxwell Winward senior partner, added: “The merger provides a great opportunity to extend the range of services we can offer clients while continuing to focus on what we do best. Combining our real estate expertise will allow us to widen our offering by providing a more extensive service without losing the personal touch.”
“This is also a great cultural fit and we are delighted to be merging with a firm that has featured in The Sunday Times’ 100 Best Companies to Work For list for 14 years running.”
The new combined firm will have a turnover of approximately £93 million with Mills & Reeve posting a record turnover of £87.2 million in the year to 31 May 2016, an increase of more than £5.5 million from the previous year.
The merger follows a year of growth for the Mills & Reeve London office. The family team has rapidly expanded with Tim Whitney joining from Russell-Cooke along with Sara Hanna, formerly of Burgess Mee Family Law and Allen & Overy. To meet the growing demand for international tax advice for high-net worth individuals, the private wealth team has just been enhanced by the arrival of Gillian Kennedy-Smith from Clarke Willmott.
And in July 2016 the litigation practice was strengthened with the appointment of Eric France as head of commercial disputes in London. Eric joined Mills & Reeve after 10 years at Clifford Chance.
In September 2016 Mills & Reeve won most innovative workplace initiative at The Lawyer's Business Leadership Awards for the move to Monument Place. The judges were impressed at how the move was used to completely reimagine the working environment with a host of innovative changes designed to promote agile working.
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