Gallagher Bassett acquires City maritime law firm Mays Brown in third law firm buy, targeting integrated shipping claims market
Gallagher Bassett (GB), the insurance claims services business and a subsidiary of US insurance giant Arthur J. Gallagher & Co, has acquired Mays Brown, a City of London firm specialising in shipping and maritime law, in its third law firm acquisition. The deal adds 15 staff to GB's legal team, which now numbers around 180 lawyers. GB previously acquired Strata Solicitors in 2017 — one of the first alternative business structures (ABSs — law firms with non-lawyer ownership, permitted under the Legal Services Act 2007) in the UK — and Caytons Law in 2024, a London and Bristol firm focused on insurance claims management. Mays Brown continues to operate under its own brand, consistent with GB's approach to its earlier acquisitions. The Mays Brown acquisition follows GB's purchase of marine claims management firm WK Webster and German firm Reck & Co earlier in 2026, reflecting a deliberate strategy to build an integrated marine claims, legal, and consulting platform. Manan Sagar, GB's chief executive for Europe, Middle East and Asia, said the combination positions GB as "the pre-eminent provider of marine claims, legal, and consulting services globally". GB is continuing to seek further law firm acquisitions, with financial lines, professional indemnity, directors' and officers' (D&O) liability insurance, and clinical negligence identified as target practice areas. David Wartski, director and founding partner of Mays Brown, cited the opening of the firm's Newcastle upon Tyne office in late 2025 — led by senior admiralty lawyer and master mariner Andreas Welz — as complementing the firm's dry shipping expertise ahead of the deal.
Why this matters
GB's acquisition strategy illustrates one of the most commercially disruptive structural trends in the UK legal market: the integration of law firms into insurance and claims management businesses under the ABS framework. By combining legal services with third-party administration (TPA — firms that manage claims on behalf of insurers or self-insured corporates) capabilities, GB is directly competing with law firms that have historically captured the insurance defence mandate. The maritime sector is particularly exposed to this dynamic because the TPA/law firm divide is long-established and the transaction values involved are significant. Rival firms such as DWF and DAC Beachcroft have pursued the inverse strategy — buying TPAs — confirming the market is converging from both directions.
On the Ground
On an ABS acquisition or law firm M&A transaction, a trainee would assist with due diligence report indexing across the target firm's regulatory authorisations from the Solicitors Regulation Authority, review SPA schedules covering client file transfer and retainer novation, and coordinate Companies House filings following completion.
Interview prep
Soundbite
ABS-enabled law firm acquisitions by insurers are compressing the traditional TPA-law firm boundary in marine and specialist claims.
Question you might get
“How does the Alternative Business Structure framework under the Legal Services Act enable non-lawyer ownership of law firms, and what regulatory conditions attach to ABS authorisation by the Solicitors Regulation Authority?”
Full answer
Gallagher Bassett has acquired its third UK law firm — City maritime specialist Mays Brown — as part of a deliberate strategy to build an integrated marine claims and legal services platform under the ABS ownership model permitted in England and Wales. This matters because it represents a direct commercial challenge to traditional law firms in the marine insurance sector: clients who previously instructed a TPA for claims management and a separate law firm for legal work can now get both from a single provider. The trend is confirmed by DWF and DAC Beachcroft pursuing the same convergence from the opposite direction by buying TPAs. This is a structural shift in how legal services are packaged and delivered in insurance-adjacent markets, and it will compress margins for standalone law firms that cannot compete on the integrated-services model.
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