Leading national law firm Mills & Reeve will acquire a nine-strong defendant insurance team from DLA Piper on 1 July.
The team will be based in Mills & Reeve’s Birmingham office in Colmore Row and led by partner Alan Jacobs, formerly head of DLA Piper’s Birmingham insurance group.
The move further strengthens Mills & Reeve’s casualty offering, which has recently been boosted by the appointment of consultant Chris Gough in the Manchester office and the presence of partner Kate Archer in Birmingham.
Alan has considerable experience in handling serious RTA, employer’s liability and public liability claims, and is also well-known for creating the Medical Experts’ Database Service (MEDS), the online medical database for the insurance industry. He brings with him a team of eight, including associate Felicity Ho, solicitor Jagjit Virdi, three other fee-earners and three support staff.
The new team is also expected to fully utilise Mills & Reeve’s Norwich-based paralegal support unit (PSU), which has just celebrated its first anniversary. The PSU, which deals with systematic procedures such as e-discovery, is just one way in which Mills & Reeve is looking to manage its profit margin by putting in place a number of best practice ideas.
Neil Davis, head of Mills & Reeve’s insurance sector, said: “We’re delighted to welcome Alan and his team to Mills & Reeve. His corporate facing team will complement our existing offering and enhance the services we can provide. Both we and DLA Piper are convinced this is a positive step for the clients involved, and have worked together to facilitate a smooth transition.
“Alan’s team have an impressive list of insurance and corporate clients, all of which fit well within our existing strategy for the development of a diversified and corporate focussed insurance offering, across a national footprint. Our strategy is to grow our business in line with our sector commitments, including insurance and corporate services, while maintaining our reputation for outstanding client service. The fact that Alan’s clients have enthusiastically supported this move speaks volumes for the regard in which his team are held.”