Two southeast firms have merged to form a practice with a combined headcount of 225 people and £20m annual turnover.

Illiffes Booth Bennett Solicitors (IBB Solicitors) has brought its 17 specialist practice areas together with full service firm Turbervilles Solicitors.

The deal was completed last week and the new firm will go under the name IBB Solicitors. All Turbervilles employees and the firm’s five partners will move to IBB’s offices in Uxbridge, north west London. The merged firm will be led by managing partner Joanna DeBiase with Turbervilles’ former managing partner, Russell Hallam, joining the IBB leadership team from January 2018.

DeBiase said: ‘Since developing our long-term vision in 2016, we have been looking at ways to make our firm more resilient. Mergers are one of the ways to achieve growth as long as both firms share the same culture and values.

‘At the core, both of our firm’s philosophies have always been about listening to our clients to get a really good understanding of how we can help them.’

The combined firm now aims to grow revenue to £30m by 2023 through the joining of practices working in different sectors.

IBB Solicitors has a clientbase including Aviva, Xerox (UK) and Bellway plc, while Turbervilles’ clients include National Caravan Council, Symrise Limited, WMF UK Ltd and Parexel International.

Hallam added: ‘Like IBB, we were keen to find a partner to boost our service offering to our clients who are mostly based in West London and the surrounding regions.

‘I am in no doubt that our clients will benefit from the combined and distinctive service offering now that two firms have become one.’