Law360: PE Looks Offshore For A New Way Into Legal Services
A Law360 article by Marialuisa Taddia examines how private equity investors may have found a new opening into legal services — not through the large, established firms in the US and UK they've long struggled to invest in, but through offshore firms with governance, fiduciary and consulting arms attached.
The catalyst is Jersey-headquartered Mourant Group's recent sale of a roughly 27% stake to mid-market PE firm MML Capital Partners — a deal advisers describe as the first time capital has been raised specifically for a firm combining legal, governance and consulting services under one umbrella. It follows Vitruvian Partners' 2025 investment in Walkers Professional Services, the corporate services arm of Cayman-based Walkers.
Siobhán Lewington, co-office managing partner of Macrae's London office, comments in the piece on why this combination of services makes offshore firms particularly attractive to investors: "Legal services are just one part of their business. And that's why the business lends itself well to PE investment."
Lewington notes that ancillary work such as incorporation, company secretarial, fiduciary and trustee services tends to involve high-volume, repeat filings rather than one-off advisory matters — giving investors far more visibility into future revenue than legal work alone would offer.
The article also touches on Bermuda-based Appleby reportedly weighing a similar move, and why a fragmented offshore market may be ripe for further consolidation.
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