Legal Services: business succession in the UK

Name: Legal Services business succession in the UK
Creator: ExitRadar
License: https://www.exitradar.co.uk/terms

5,739 UK legal services companies (33.7%) have a director aged 60 or over.

1.3 points above the all-trades average of 32.4%.

Companies measured17,011

Director aged 60+5,739

Exposure rate33.7%

Companies House register·Measured base 3,631,842·Data as at 11 October 2026·Full methodology

17,011

Companies measured

5,739

With a director 60+

1,612

With a director 70+

33.7%

Exposure rate

Of the 5,739 with a director over 60, 645 score 50 or higher on business quality. That figure is an output of our own scoring model, not a Companies House figure. How we score it.

Legal Services by region

Region	Companies	60+	Rate
Scotland	848	384	45.3%
South West	1,043	455	43.6%
Wales	470	194	41.3%
South East	2,027	767	37.8%
East of England	1,270	477	37.6%
North East	377	141	37.4%
Northern Ireland	285	101	35.4%
East Midlands	894	315	35.2%
West Midlands	1,333	425	31.9%
Yorkshire & The Humber	1,036	322	31.1%
North West	2,209	672	30.4%
London	5,212	1,484	28.5%

Combinations with fewer than 250 measured companies are not listed separately. They are still counted in every total on this page.

Next step

This page counts director ages across the whole register. If you are looking to buy rather than to research, our Professional Services pages go further: we score each company on business quality and exit timing, and shortlist the ones worth approaching.

See UK Professional Services →

Part of the UK Business Succession Index.

Cite this page

These figures are free to quote and reproduce, including in commercial work, with attribution to ExitRadar and a link to this page.

ExitRadar, "Legal Services: business succession in the UK", UK Business Succession Index, 11 October 2026. https://www.exitradar.co.uk/succession/prof-legal/

Need a cut that is not published here, such as a different trade grouping, a finer geography or the underlying distribution? Get in touch and we will usually provide it. Methodology.

Method. Figures cover the 3,631,842 active UK companies where Companies House records an age bracket for at least one serving director (94.0% of the 3,863,328 companies on the active register). A company counts as succession-exposed when its oldest serving director is 60 or over. We do not use the board average, which would hide a 70-year-old founder sitting alongside younger co-directors. The business-quality figure covers only the subset our model assesses; see the methodology for why that is far smaller than the number with filed accounts. Data as at 11 October 2026; updated quarterly, next update January 2027. Full methodology.