Our team of 34 legal accountants and tax advisers are here to help you realise your potential and develop new opportunities for your law firm.

Law firms large and small, across the UK, can benefit from our unrivalled legal sector knowledge.

Understanding you

The legal market is changing.

We have seen an increase in practice mergers and acquisitions, virtual law firms are becoming a reality and technology developments are changing the way lawyers work.

We can help you to take advantage of the opportunities this presents for law firms and ensure you stay ahead of the game.

We work with lawyers all day, every day. Whenever you seek our advice, you can be sure that it will always be expert, relevant and up to date.

Helping you achieve your goals

Are you looking for a comprehensive answer to:

  • What is my law firm worth?
  • How can I increase the value of my business?
  • What if I want to retire in 5 or 10 years’ time?
  • What will we need to borrow to pay a retiring partner?
  • What capital should new equity partners contribute?
  • How much should we pay to acquire another law firm?
  • How do I start my own practice? 

Have you seen our latest webinar?

Stay up to date with SRA Accounts Rules compliance.

Watch now

How can we help you?

Are you looking for a comprehensive answer to:

Have you read The Law Society's LMS Financial Benchmarking Survey 2021?

The survey is widely regarded as one of the leading annual health check reports for mid-sized practices.

View the full survey

Making a difference

  • The Law Society’s LMS Financial Benchmarking Survey author since 2009. In 2020, 583 business leaders from 55 countries took part, which provided meaningful legal benchmarking on key financial data including fee income, employment  costs, profitability, working capital and financial stability.
  • ICAEW Solicitors' Special Interest Group representation. 
  • ILFM Executive Council representation.
  • Don't miss out on our regular seminars keeping you up to date on topical issues. If you have recently attended one of our events, you can download the presentation here.

Working together

We work with a number of organisations and groups to ensure we can provide you with the most up to date business advice and support for you and your law firm.

Law Firm Ambition was founded by a group of leading legal sector specialists to create a central resource for law firms. 


Calico publish free business content to support leaders of modern law firms.

Featured news

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Legal update: UK law firms see net loss of 136 partners as retirement plans are brought forward

Tuesday 25 May 2021

UK law firms saw a net loss of 136 partners in 2019/20*, as coronavirus brought forward retirement plans for older partners and led to fewer promotions, says Hazlewoods, Chartered Accountants and Business Advisers who specialise in the legal profession.
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Legal update: Law Society's LMS Financial Benchmarking Survey 2021

Friday 14 May 2021

The Law Society's LMS Financial Benchmarking Survey 2021 presents financial performance data on the financial year from 31 March 2019 to 30 April 2020, the year before the COVID-19 crisis began to affect the UK. Hazlewoods Legal team is delighted to have written and produced the report for the 12th time.
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Legal update: Lack of Professional Indemnity Insurance caused 60 law firms to close last year

Wednesday 12 May 2021

The number of law firms that have closed because they were unable to obtain Professional Indemnity (PI) Insurance has increased to 60 in the last year, up from 37 the year before*. However, the number of closures is much lower than expected given the current pandemic.
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Legal update: 10 things to think about before approaching anyone about selling your practice

Tuesday 13 April 2021

When do you want to exit? It is estimated that less than 10% of owners really know the answer to this. However, having a timeline gives you clarity to enable you to plan properly as, ideally, you want to be in control of the process and not let the process control you.

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Legal update: Law firm mergers fall to nine-year low as pandemic turns consolidators cautious

Thursday 18 March 2021

Law firm mergers have fallen to a nine-year low as the economic downturn leaves consolidator firms wary of making acquisitions.
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Legal Focus Spring 2021

Wednesday 10 March 2021

The latest version of our Legal Focus for Spring 2021 is now available.
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Legal update: Number of UK law firms holds steady despite impact of lockdown

Monday 15 February 2021

The number of law firms in the UK has held up well despite the lockdown with 10,080 firms registered as of December 2020, down just 2% on the 10,278 firms that were registered in December 2019.
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Legal update: Winter checklist

Wednesday 2 December 2020

With so much to think about just now, we thought it would be helpful to put together a checklist of things to think about over the coming months. We have separated this into a few different sections.

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Legal update: Good news on taking money for disbursements

Thursday 17 September 2020

The SRA has issued new guidance on Taking money for your firm’s costs. Most of it is nothing new, but the final section on reimbursing yourselves for money already spent will be warmly welcomed by many firms, and should mean that fewer disbursement-only invoices will be required.

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Legal update: What can the self-employed claim when working from home?

Thursday 17 September 2020

The self-employed, for example, partners in partnerships or sole traders of unincorporated businesses, can make claims for costs that they incur, which can reduce their taxable profits.

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Legal update: Virtual law firms on the rise

Monday 14 September 2020

There has been a 7% rise in the number of lawyers at ‘virtual’ law firms since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic as more lawyers consider the benefits of working outside the traditional law firm environment.

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Legal update: Dispelling the myths of selling your law firm

Tuesday 8 September 2020

The law firm mergers and acquisitions market is on a positive upward trend and many partners and owners are now looking for opportunities to sell. Hazlewoods Legal team works with law firms every day and whilst talking to those who have an interest in selling, we find that there are some common misconceptions surrounding the selling process.

Related videos

Dispelling the myths of selling your law firm

Events

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Legal succession strategy webinar week

Monday 21 June to Friday 25 June 2021

Succession remains the key challenge for most law firms no matter what your size, whether you are looking at dealing with it internally or externally. This often leads to merger / acquisition activities which are set to increase significantly this year, after seeing a nine year low on transactions in 2020. Join us for a unique journey over the course of a week covering all the key components that will help make your strategy more successful.
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Calico Online: Law firm funding and finance

Thursday 27 May 2021 9:30 AM to 10:30 AM

Much planning, re-planning and constant re-forecasting has been undertaken by every business over the past year. We are delighted to invite you to the next Calico Online session on funding and finance on Thursday 27 May 2021, where Hazlewoods Partner, Patricia Kinahan, will be speaking.

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"Hazlewoods niche expertise with firms in our industry sets them apart from all the others"

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Testimonial from Anonymous

"We were all very impressed with the audit work. [The auditors] were extremely professional and polite, having worked with many auditors and as an auditor myself in the past, they were genuinely exceptional in comparison to others I’ve worked with. We really appreciated the detail of the work you carried out and your helpfulness in answering various SRA related queries. The issues highlighted will definitely help us tighten things up as a business going forwards and will help us revise our…"

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Key contacts

Jon Cartwright
Jon Cartwright
Partner
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Patricia Kinahan
Patricia Kinahan
Partner
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Andy Harris
Andy Harris
Partner
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Mike Ingmire
Mike Ingmire
Director
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Jenny Staight
Jenny Staight
Director
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