Mayo Wynne Baxter: ready for growth

Founded 150 years ago, Mayo Wynne Baxter is a leading law firm for life and business in the South East. During that time, the firm has undergone more than 15 mergers and acquisitions, and it has grown from a single location in Lewes to eight hubs across Sussex.

In May 2022, the firm announced its merger with national legal and professional services group Ampa, and earlier this year, it merged with Lawson Lewis Blakers, all the while maintaining its personality, brand credibility and ambition.

Despite being one of the oldest law firms in the region, the forward thinking firm has remained progressive, with a culture of collaboration, transparency, equality and inclusion, achieving B-Corporation status earlier this year and listed as a best employer. 

Poised and ready for further growth; the firm is proactively looking for lateral hires, teams and merger brands – there seems to be no stopping Mayo Wynne Baxter.

150 years of serving Sussex

Steeped in history, the firm was originally founded in Lewes by Wynne Edwin Baxter; the first mayor of Lewes, who famously carried out inquests into three recognised victim cases of Jack the Ripper in 1888. He also investigated the deaths of Joseph Merrick (known as the ‘Elephant Man’), German spies, First World War bombing fatalities, accidental deaths and murder victims.

Fast forward, and more than 15 mergers and acquisitions later, the award-winning firm has eight hubs across Sussex, including Brighton, Crawley, Eastbourne, Storrington, Lewes, Seaford, East Grinstead and Peacehaven, as well as ambitious plans to grow further into Kent and Surrey.

In the past year, the firm has attracted more than 40 news starters, including litigation partner Nick Stockley, who has more than 15 years’ experience as a top commercial litigator and dispute resolution solicitor. As partner, Nick has been tasked with developing Mayo Wynne Baxter’s commercial dispute resolution and insolvency services, growing the team, and boosting client relationships.

Shortly after Nick, commercial expert Daniel Jenking, who has more than 20 years’ experience in the city and a large Surrey-based firm, joined the ranks as partner – brought onboard to build a dedicated team devoted to helping business owners, and to provide a greater depth of expertise.

Today, it has a team of more than 220 people, serving SMEs and high net worth individuals in a range of legal areas, including property, corporate and commercial law, employment, litigation, international, private client and family law, as well as specialist litigation, rural affairs and commercial transactions. Not forgetting small businesses, start-ups and families with a tighter budget, Mayo Wynne Baxter is also looking to expand LawEasier; its online platform that offers one-off consumer purchases and business subscription services for bespoke letters and legal documents that don’t require extensive expert advice.

Amping up growth

In May 2022, Mayo Wynne Baxter announced its merger with Ampa, a national legal and professional services group that provides infrastructure and backing to enable the growth of its brands. All brands within Ampa have a shared purpose; to unlock potential, as well as shared values and ambition for long-term, sustainable growth that keeps clients, communities, people and the planet in mind. 

With no money exchanging hands as part of the merger, Mayo Wynne Baxter has remained a separate LLP, keeping its brand and independence, but gaining access to more than 1,000 other experts across legal disciplines and business operations to increase the breadth and depth of what the firm can offer to its clients. 

In return, Ampa benefits from Mayo Wynne Baxter’s well-established presence in Sussex, its expertise and its growing client base. 

Dean Orgill, chief executive partner at Mayo Wynne Baxter, and Board member of Ampa, said: “There has been a lot of consolidation in the legal market recently, but no one else is offering what Ampa does. The merger was not a takeover, there were no redundancies as a result, nor a one-off ‘pay-day’ for equity partners; it is a merger of the purest kind, where we know that the sum is greater than its parts and that working together will make us stronger and enable bigger and faster growth.

“Our move to join Ampa is part of a wider strategy shared by the businesses for growth, collaboration and combined infrastructure, as well as shared values in terms of supporting clients and the community. When we saw what Ampa had planned, we were excited: merging was a case of ‘want to, not need to’.”

As part of the merger, Mayo Wynne Baxter’s personal injury and clinical negligence teams have joined Ampa’s existing national consumer-focussed law brand, Lime Solicitors, broadening the geographical reach of this consumer brand and uniting existing expertise across the group. 

Adding Lawson Lewis Blakers

In 2023, Mayo Wynne Baxter announced another merger, this time with Eastbourne firm Lawson Lewis Blakers. 

At the time of the merger, Jeremy Sogno, director at Lawson Lewis Blakers, said: “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.”

With origins traced as far back as 1835, Lawson Lewis Blakers is no stranger to mergers, with the latest iteration of the brand forming when Lawson Lewis & Co and Blaker Son & Young merged in October 2012. 

Acting for businesses, people and their families in Eastbourne, Peacehaven and Lewes, Lawson Lewis Blakers has significant experience in private client and family law, residential property, employment, commercial transactions and litigation, adding complementary services and skills to Mayo Wynne Baxter’s existing teams.

Dean commented: “Lawson Lewis Blakers is a long-standing firm with an excellent reputation and an ambition to grow – for its people and its clients. We see ourselves being stronger together and are delighted to welcome the whole team to the Mayo Wynne Baxter brand.”

Following suit of the Ampa merger, no money exchanged hands as part of the merger and there were no redundancies.

Becoming a B-Corporation

Committed to people, planet and purpose, Mayo Wynne Baxter – as part of Ampa – has been on a journey to becoming a B-Corporation, which the group achieved in January 2023. 

Organisations with certified B-Corporation status are legally required to consider the impact of business decisions on their people, customers, suppliers, communities and the environment, ensuring a balance between purpose, people and profit.  

The benchmarks in order to achieve accreditation are incredibly high and the auditing process is rigorous, with non-profit B-Lab independently scoring companies across governance, workers, community, environment and customers to determine the business’ social and environmental performance.   

Dean said: “This is a key milestone in our ambition to change the world of business for good. We believe we can be both purposeful and profitable and our B-Corporation values are embedded in our business strategy and fully supported from the top-down. We also take great pride in helping our clients achieve their sustainability goals.  

“We keep ourselves accountable through our responsible business ambitions that are constantly tracked and analysed, pushing us to do better and achieve more. So far, we have achieved a number of our group-wide ambitions across diversity and inclusion, reducing landfill waste and carbon emissions, as well as supporting young people in our local communities.”

Future growth plans

Over the next year Mayo Wynne Baxter is looking to grow further both organically and by taking on practices and lateral hires that fit with its ambitious plans for growth. Seeing opportunities in the commercial and litigation spheres, the firm has already appointed new partners in these areas, with plans to focus on expanding other areas already developed. 

And Mayo Wynne Baxter has proved itself as a good employer having been listed (as part of Ampa) in Best Companies 2022 as one of the top 100 best large companies to work for in the UK, as well as a top 25 law firm to work for. 

Dean said: “We are recruiting proactively across Sussex, Surrey and Kent. We are also looking for like-minded teams or smaller firms in our current localities – and further into Kent and Surrey – who share our culture and values and are looking for a firm where they can flourish.

“We will also continue to be inventive in the way we approach private client work, developing our IT provision further, in order to enhance the quality service we provide. Further growth is also expected in the family work that we do.”

Reflecting on recent years, Dean added: “As we emerged from the pandemic, we found we had retained a huge number of staff and admirable client loyalty. We have utilised and enhanced ways of hybrid working with flexibility based on individual need and job role. This has resulted in improved efficiencies in the way we work on client focussed outcomes. We are also learning to use our office space in different ways, creating hubs for creative and collaborative thinking. Adapting to market trends has also been key, for example a property market that has been open to all sorts of influences.”

Committed to Sussex

Dean said: “Despite the turbulent times we’re experiencing, there is a huge amount of business opportunity in the region and we’re witnessing a great deal of ambition, innovation, creativity and resilience across Sussex and beyond, making it a fantastic place to live and work.

“As a firm we’ve experienced rapid change and we’re really proud of how far we’ve come, how embedded we are in the community and how we are able to offer high quality service and an attractive proposition to our people.

“We are completely committed to Sussex as we have very loyal, longstanding clients, who are at the heart of every business decision we make. We are looking to grow, yes, but we are looking for sustainable growth that retains our culture and approach to law and never compromises our service.”

www.mayowynnebaxter.co.uk