Solaris Law completes purchase of Equivo Legal Services team and Shoosmiths exits the recoveries market
Solaris Law Ltd, part of the Azzurro Group, has now completed the purchase of the Equivo Legal Services division. This is the final part of a two-stage transaction which sees the Equivo legal team join Solaris Law Ltd and follows the first stage of the transaction last year to purchase the Shoosmith’s commercial debt recovery team and integrating it into its new Solent office.
Solaris Law will now be one of the largest commercial and consumer specialist collections and legal debt recovery businesses in the UK with a focus on Asset and Motor finance recoveries, Mortgage recoveries, Unsecured lending and commercial and business to business debt recovery.
Solaris Law will be structured as two law firms with the new Consumer-focused-firm, led by Mel Chell having both Solicitor Regulation Authority (SRA) and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) permissions. The Commercial law firm, which will be regulated by the SRA, will continue to be led by Karen Bulgarelli. CEO of Solaris Law Ltd.
Both Karen and Mel are lawyers and were formerly Partners of Shoosmiths with outstanding pedigree in their chosen markets and over 50 years of qualification between them.
Karen Bulgarelli. CEO of Solaris Law Ltd, who led the transaction on behalf of Solaris Law, believes clients will benefit from instructing a law firm that can act as a one stop shop: “We are passionate about client service and solving our client’s problems which is why we are building Solaris Law to be able to serve all the debt recovery needs of our clients. We are combining cost effective legal solutions with operational excellence and innovative solutions, underpinned by true sector experts and experienced legal professionals.”
Mel Chell, CEO of Solaris Law (Consumer) says she can’t wait to build this new legal brand in the debt recovery market: “We are excited to invest and build a genuine market leader in the debt recovery market. With our experienced team of lawyers and product specialists focussed on collections to litigation and beyond, we will focus on building a data-driven, customer and product focused recovery business that focuses on good customer outcomes and an exemplary client experience.”
Work has already started on transitioning the teams into the new business, which will now comprise over 190 paralegals, lawyers and support staff across offices in Southampton, Northampton and Manchester. The case management platform is common across all parties, and further investment into additional systems and infrastructure is already underway.
The Azzurro Group is regulated by both the Financial Conduct Authority and the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Azzurro was also the first non-lender to sign up to the Lending Standards Board’s Code for Business Standards.
Equivo’s Field Team and High Court Enforcement Business will not form part of the new business and will continue to operate under the Equivo brand.