Administrators for the troubled top 50 UK law firm The Ince Group have sold the firm’s legal business and associated assets to UK national firm AxiomDWFM, a little more than two weeks after the group called in the administrators in response to a major creditor pulling its support for the business.

The sale of Ince & Co to AxiomDWFM will enable the firm’s partner group to refocus on legal services as it concedes it had become distracted by the broader Ince Group’s push into other areas such as accounting and financial services, consulting and pensions advice. The law firm business will retain its branding and operate as a separate entity to AxiomDWFM.

Pragnesh Modhwadia, founder and managing partner of AxiomDWFM, said: “We have great confidence in the quality of the Ince & Co business and the lawyers within it and are very excited that, like AxiomDWFM, the firm is built around differentiated areas of great specialism, market positioning and quality of service.”

Ince & Co specialises in areas such as shipping, insurance, energy and aviation. Existing Ince & Co employees will transfer to the new business under their previous terms of employment and remuneration structures. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Donald Brown, CEO of Ince & Co, said: “This acquisition of the Ince businesses will give the firm, our team and our clients a simple and clear corporate and capital structure under professional, knowledgeable and robust ownership. We are underpinned by a group of immensely talented lawyers with deep expertise in our key sectors.”

Brown added that after he took over the management of the broader Ince Group last year, it quickly became apparent that the firm needed to address a “series of poorly structured and executed transactions and expansions”.

AxiomDWFM itself was formed out of a merger in 2021 between Axiom Stone Solicitors and DWFM Beckman. The combined firm also recently acquired independent London firm Wiseman Lee. 

Modhwadia said: “When the opportunity came to acquire a business of the calibre of Ince & Co we were eager to engage and are delighted that the Ince & Co team shared our enthusiasm.”