Kain Knight acquires SettleFirst

KAIN Knight, established since 1976 and now one of UK’s largest firms of costs lawyers, has acquired costs and debt management company SettleFirst. 

SettleFirst specialises in advising insurance companies, banks and other institutions on debt recovery and collections, and also works closely with the legal community in the United Arab Emirates. 

Mitesh Modha, Kain Knight’s Head of Technical and Special Projects, is managing SettleFirst in the short term and is in the process of developing an enhanced business plan with the current SettleFirst team. 

Kain Knight intends to develop SettleFirst’s existing income streams and also use the business as a platform to provide Kain Knight’s services to firms based in the UAE and throughout the rest of the GCC region. To support this, a Kain Knight team, together with costs expert Nicholas Bacon QC from 4 New Square, visited law firms in the GCC during September to promote traditional costs services, as well as new services targeted at the Alternative Dispute Resolution market including costs arbitration, costs mediation and pricing advisory services. 

Peter Petyt, Kain Knight’s Chief Executive Officer, commented on the acquisition, affirming it to be an important step in growth programmes, rendering valuable geographical and service line diversification. There stands to be compelling synergies between SettleFirst’s existing client relationships and Kain Knight’s target clients in the GCC region, and they intend to grow SettleFirst’s existing services, alongside the provision of existing and new legal costs services.