£38m-turnover Liverpool city region legal group that includes Jackson Lees and Bermans is close to securing new investment to fund its expansion strategy. Tony McDonough reports

Liverpool city region legal group MAPD Ventures has told LBN that it is close to securing new investment to fund its growth-by-acquisition strategy.

MAPD was set up in 2019 by Brian Cullen and Joanna Kingston-Davies. Mr Cullen has a 60% controlling stake in the business. Its registered address is Hoylake in Wirral.

In 2020 it acquired Liverpool-based Jackson Lees, a legal firm founded in 2016 following the merger of three of the city’s best-known practices, Lees Solicitors, Jackson Canter and Broudie Solicitors.

Brian and Joanna were senior executives at Jackson Lees which is based in Exchange Flags. They led a management buyout of the firm and incorporated it into MAPD. In September 2022 it acquired another well known Liverpool firm, Bermans.

In July 2024 LBN reported the business was seeking private equity backing to fund its ambitions to continue on the acquisition trail. At that time it filed its accounts for the 12 months to May 31, 2023 on Companies House.

They showed revenues of £23.2m, a big leap on the £15.7m in the previous year. And the accounts stated that further growth since the end of the accounting period had seen the annualised turnover grow to £38m.

According to Companies House, MAPD’s accounts for the year to May 31, 2024, are now overdue and should have been filed at the end of last month (May 31, 2025).

In a statement to LBN the company said: “The audit of our accounts is substantially complete. The brief delay reflects the exciting next chapter in MAPD’s journey.

“After five years of strong performance and building a group of exceptional legal services businesses, we’re now finalising a strategic refinancing with a new investment partner to support our continued growth and long-term plans.”

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MAPD has also acquired a number of other practices. In April 2023, MAPD bought Thomas Hayton Winkley,  a 150-year-old law firm on the South Lakes which focuses on legal services for SMEs and family-owned businesses.

Bromley’s Solicitors in Ashton-under-Lyne was also acquired in the same month. In September 2023 MAPD also bought Avidity IP Holdings, a European and UK patent attorney, and Farrington Law, a small private client practice in Southport.