Moore Barlow broken in two: Knights takes the commercial arm, Fletchers the claimant work

Moore Barlow is being taken apart rather than taken over. Listed acquirer Knights has agreed to buy the South East firm's commercial and private wealth practices, while the personal injury, clinical negligence and Court of Protection teams head to private equity-backed Fletchers.

The arrangement, made public on 21 August 2026, prices the Knights side at £27m on a cash- and debt-free basis. £18m is due at completion, expected on 1 November, with three further £3m payments falling on each of the next three anniversaries.

Two buyers, two very different appetites

For Knights the attraction is regional depth. Moore Barlow's draft figures for the year to 30 April 2026 point to £45m of revenue and £13m of profit; the slice Knights is taking accounts for roughly £30m of that turnover and brings around 160 fee-earners onto its platform across the South East and South Central regions.

Fletchers is moving at a different tempo. This is its fourth deal in five months, following EMG Solicitors, JE Bennett and the clinical negligence and Court of Protection teams carved out of Freeths. Moore Barlow's injury and clinical negligence lawyers will sit inside Fletchers Solicitors, with the Court of Protection team routed to EMG, the group's specialist business in that field.

Fletchers is also picking up Moore Barlow's stake in Aspire Law, the joint venture with spinal cord injury charity Aspire, which will keep trading under its own name inside Fletchers Solicitors.

What Knights is actually buying

Knights has been public since 2018 and has now announced or completed 30 acquisitions. Only last year's £30m purchase of IBB Law is larger than this one.

Investor commentary from the firm stressed the overlap with its existing strengths, singling out real estate, private wealth and landed estates, plus a schools and charities practice it rates among the strongest UK teams advising the private school sector.

Chief executive David Beech said the deal delivers "significantly greater scale across the South East and South Central regions" and described Moore Barlow as a strong cultural and operational fit, with the combination creating scope for growth, wider client services and more internal opportunity.

The office footprint shrinks

Moore Barlow currently works out of Richmond, Guildford, Woking, Southampton, Lymington and a small City base. Once the deal completes, Woking and Guildford will be consolidated into one Guildford site and the City office will shut.

Managing partner Ed Whittington said the partnership concluded that separating the firm into two businesses would let each half pursue its own growth ambitions, while giving clients a wider service range and the resources of a nationally scaled business.

Claimant work keeps consolidating

Fletchers Group chief executive Peter Haden said the incoming teams would strengthen both Fletchers Solicitors and EMG and deepen the group's coverage across London and the South East.

The pattern is familiar: private equity money continues to gather high-volume claimant practices, while listed firms concentrate on commercial and private client work that suits a broader advisory platform.

A slow-growth firm makes a decisive call

Moore Barlow itself is only six years old, formed in 2020 when Moore Blatch and Barlow Robbins combined. Turnover has crept from £37m to £45m in that time. Splitting the firm looks less like a rescue than a deliberate reset, with each buyer paying for capability it wants rather than inheriting a whole business.

It also lands within days of Knights' separate £4m purchase of Thames Valley practice THP Solicitors, giving the listed group two announced deals inside a week.

Why this matters for the wider market

Deals like this suggest the UK legal market is dividing along practice-area lines as much as consolidating by region. Commercial and private wealth work gravitates towards capital-markets-backed firms; injury and clinical negligence work pools in platforms built for volume.

For clients, brand loyalty matters less than whether a firm has genuine depth in the work they need. For lawyers, it is another sign that the all-purpose regional firm is under pressure from buyers who would rather own a specialism than a full-service label.