On Saturday 1st April 2023, we further strengthened our position as the leading law firm in Sussex when we merged with long-established firm, Lawson Lewis Blakers.

There are such great synergies between our two firms that a merger made perfect sense.

Lawson Lewis Blakers has always been known as a modern progressive law firm that can trace its roots in Sussex back almost 200 years.

Lawson Lewis & Co was established in Eastbourne in 1875 and grew organically and by merger, establishing an office in Peacehaven in 2000, and absorbing Lewes firm Blaker Son & Young (established approximately 1830) in 2012 to become Lawson Lewis Blakers.

The merger has seen Lawson Lewis Blakers now become part of the Mayo Wynne Baxter brand, taking the Mayo Wynne Baxter team to more than 220 people. Their Peacehaven office is now our eighth office in the Sussex area, and staff from their Lewes and Eastbourne offices have moved into our existing buildings in those towns.

Jeremy Sogno, director at Lawson Lewis Blakers, said when we announced the merger: “We were looking for a larger organisation that shared our values and could offer greater growth opportunities for our talented and ambitious team, as well as providing additional services and expertise to our valued clients; Mayo Wynne Baxter more than fits these criteria, and we are excited about joining forces and continuing our legacy within the local area.”

There were no redundancies as a result of the merger and Lawson Lewis Blakers’ clients can expect the same high levels of exceptional service from our friendly team. As part of MWB, clients will have access to a greater range of services and specialists in more areas of law.

They will also be offered our Satisfaction Guarantee whereby if they are not completely satisfied with the service received, they can deduct up to a maximum of 20% off their fee. No quibble.

Clients who had documents held for them by LLB can rest assured that they remain safe with us. Should you wish to retrieve your Will or Deeds then please click here.

We started this year with some exciting news. We joined Ampa – the UK’s leading group of legal and professional services companies. As a result of this merger, our clients now have access to more than 900 experts across the group. These include new service areas such as planning, cyber security, data protection and risk management, to name a few.

It has always been important to us that we continue to innovate and find ways to better serve our growing client base. Over the last decade, this has included mergers with other firms and developing technological solutions like our LawEasier service.

The move to join Ampa supports our shared plans for growth and increases our service offering for clients across the South East. Ampa is a group of distinct and respected brands with complementary specialist areas, talented experts, and a united goal to fulfil our clients’ needs and their growth ambitions.

Together, we can now provide you with market-leading support on a vast range of varied and complex issues—all in one place. Wherever, whenever you need us.

While we will retain our distinctive brand and continue to operate as a separate LLP, joining Ampa means that we can also speed up our expansion plans. We are now looking to recruit talented people and teams across Sussex, Surrey, and Kent as Ampa’s regional anchor brand in the South East.

Ampa shares our values of collaboration, integrity and providing exceptional service. We’re delighted to join the likes of Shakespeare Martineau, Marrons Planning, Lime Solicitors, Corclaim, and CSS Assure, in the group.

“We’re excited to be taking this next step in our firm’s evolution and look forward to building on our services for our clients and communities. Joining forces is a very positive move for each of us.”  Dean Orgill, Chief Executive Partner at MWB.

Our identity as Mayo Wynne Baxter will remain. We are proud of our established reputation, and it is one of the things that made us attractive to Ampa. A crucial part of our identity is our people and, as we are looking to expand the firm not to reduce it, there are no plans for any redundancies.

Ampa’s origins are in the Midlands through Shakespeare Martineau – a well-respected and substantial law firm with ten offices including London, Birmingham and Glasgow.

Sarah Walker-Smith, Group CEO at Ampa, said: “A key benefit of our group is shared access to greater support for the benefit of our clients, whether that be from other legal professionals across different brands or our combined business operations capabilities. Alongside bigger buying power and significant opportunities to collaborate on projects, we will deliver enhanced benefits for our people and clients in life and business.

“Each brand in our group is empowered to deliver on its growth ambitions and retaining autonomy whilst collaborating with each other when it makes sense to do so for the greater good.

“Mayo Wynne Baxter has a unique geography, local market affinity, excellent client relationships, strong employer brand and a great reputation – which is why it is so important that it maintains its brand and market positions. It has been great to meet and now go into partnership with a similarly progressive business and like-minded people to help us drive the Ampa vision.”

The transition to the group is expected to be completed by 1st May 2022 and the merger will take Ampa to a turnover above £100m for 2022/23 and a group of more than 1,100 people immediately.

This is good news for MWB, but more importantly, it is good news for our clients.

On Tuesday 7th May 2019, we further strengthened our position as the leading law firm in Sussex when we merged with established Crawley law firm, Russell & Co.

This merger is the fourth that we have completed in recent years having previously added offices in East Grinstead, Storrington and Pulborough.

The completion of this deal means that Mayo Wynne Baxter now has eight offices in Sussex including those long-established bases in Eastbourne, Seaford, Lewes and Brighton.

Russell & Co has been serving the Crawley community since 1987 and share the Mayo Wynne Baxter brand values of delivering exceptional service through outstanding people. Partners Alison Kinnersley and Grant Parker and their team bring a wealth of experience to Mayo Wynne Baxter.

Our Chief Executive, Chris Randall, said: “We are delighted to announce the merger with Russell & Co. This is a great move for both firms and means that clients in Crawley will have access to a much broader range of legal services.

“This central Crawley office in Queens Square extends our reach into West Sussex and is a further step towards Mayo Wynne Baxter being the dominant law firm in the county.”

The announcement of this merger follows previous news that the firm has invested heavily in communications and information technology to further improve its existing industry-leading client service delivery. This is to be further enhanced by the introduction of a secure web portal to allow clients to have direct 24-hour access to their matter

The new Crawley office will benefit from these enhancements and Crawley clients will be offered the firm’s innovative Satisfaction Guarantee whereby if they are not completely satisfied with the service received, they can deduct up to a maximum of 20% off their fee. No quibble.

Mayo Wynne Baxter has had a long-standing association with Crawley and has been a main sponsor at Crawley Town FC since 2013 and operated an office at The Beehive in Gatwick. They are Diamond listed by the Gatwick Diamond Business Association and are previous winners of the Gatwick Diamond Business Award for Corporate Responsibility.