Midlands law firm doubles in size following regional expansion
A Coventry-based law firm is expanding its offer across the region after acquiring three businesses as part of its plans for growth.
Askews Legal LLP has recently bought Cocks Lloyd Solicitors in Nuneaton, Smalleys Solicitors in Nottingham, and John Mohamed & Co in Bedworth.
The size of the business has doubled as a result of the investment, both in terms of revenue and number of employees, which has increased from 60 to 120.
It has just been revealed as a finalist in the Rapid Riser category of the Coventry and Warwickshire Business and Community Awards 2025 taking place in March.
Key to the acquisitions is the desire to maintain the identities of the local businesses, which each have long-standing histories in their towns, while helping them to expand their offer to their communities. This will include modernising processes and aiming for further growth.
In each case, the existing partners were retiring and wanted their practices to be taken on by someone who would protect the brand and reputation they had spent years developing. All staff and the physical office locations have been retained and retiring partners are assisting with the transitions.
Askews Legal LLP is a highly accredited, Legal 500 recommended, full service law firm, taking care of legal matters across criminal law, civil litigation, commercial property, public family law, conveyancing, wills, estates and trust, and all aspects of corporate and employment law.
By pooling resources across the group, clients will now have access to a wider range of legal services via their local firm of solicitors.
‘Time was right to accelerate growth plans’
Askews was formed 12 years ago by Pritpal Chahal, Kuljeet Sandhu and Teerath Gill. While the founders always had their sights set on growth, they first wanted to establish a solid foundation, based on high levels of expert, yet personal, support for a full range of legal matters.
During the last decade, the founding partners have been joined by more than 60 employees representing a variety of ages, backgrounds and sectors to become a diverse and supportive team. The partners team has also been strengthened by the addition of Lianne Payne.
The focus is now on integrating employees from the newly-acquired businesses into the wider Askews family.
Practice manager, Pritpal Chahal, said: “We have always had a vision of growth, but we wanted to spend time developing a good solid base from which to achieve that, while at the same time setting ourselves apart as a modern law firm, flexible to the needs of today’s clients and employees.
“We felt the time was right to accelerate our plans for growth and these acquisitions are a massive step forward. We put a lot of time and effort into finding the right businesses to bring into the Askews group, and equally, they had to choose us too.
“The partners at Cocks Lloyd, Smalleys and John Mohamed & Co have all put their heart and soul into these businesses over many years and they didn’t want them to be swallowed up by a big regional business. It was important to them to see their names and reputation continue because they have built up so much respect in their communities, and we are also keen to see that continue.
“The acquisitions allow us to expand the Askews offering into new locations.”
As a modern law firm which uses various software systems to streamline and automate processes, Askews will also be looking to bring efficiency improvements to the three businesses, including going fully digital. The aim is to improve profitability, as well as adding flexibility to employees around their working locations.
The business invests in all forms of technology and automation to improve operations, generate leads and enhance the customer experience.
This includes building a bespoke online debt recovery platform – Debt-Claims.com – which enables businesses to recover debt in a just a few clicks via an affordable legal route.
There’s also it’s HR service - HR Genie - which provides a one-stop solution for SMEs looking for technological support with employment record management and storage. It allows employee documents to be safely stored and accessed via a single online portal, for complete peace of mind.
