Mon, 01 Sep 2025 | BUSINESS SALE
Groom Wilkes & Wright (GWW), a boutique law firm specialising in intellectual property (IP), has been acquired by professional services group Gateley in a deal worth up to £9 million. In the year to April 5 2025, GWW reported turnover of £4.7 million and pre-tax profit of £1.4 million.
The company, which was founded more than 20 years ago, specialises in every aspect of trademark and design law and represents clients from a wide array of sectors, ranging from start-ups to major global brand-owning companies.
Following the acquisition, the company will continue to trade under the name Groom Wilkes & Wright, led by senior partners Trevor Wright and Katy Adams and operating within Gateley's Business Services Platform.
The Business Services Platform combines the commercial expertise of IP and dispute resolution of Gateley Legal’s lawyers, alongside the trademark and patent attorneys of Adamson Jones and Symbiosis IP’s life sciences patent attorneys.
Adamson Jones and Symbiosis IP were both acquired by Gateley in 2022 and the addition of GWW further enhances the platform, bringing a focus on IP and brands and building on Gateley’s strategy of developing an industry relevant trademark and patent services offering.
Trevor Wright said that, from the first meeting with Gateley, GWW had been impressed by the group’s “strategic vision of building deep expertise in a broad range of trade mark and wider IP professional services, and by the progress they have made to date in delivering that strategy.”
Gateley Chief Executive Rod Waldie (pictured above) said: "This strategic acquisition will extend our reach in trade mark work across our consultancy and legal services teams who operate in this field."
"The acquisition forms part of our acquisitive and organic growth plan to develop a distinct and innovative intangible assets offering that further builds on the extensive expertise we have in the market and where we are already seeing huge potential for further growth."
In a statement, Gateley said that the combined strength and depth of expertise provided by GWW and Adamson Jones positioned the business as one of the UK’s leading trademark specialists and ensured the platform was well-placed to extend and win further work in the sector.
The initial cash consideration of the deal will be funded from Gateley’s new £80 million revolving credit facility, which was announced in April of this year.
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