Fladgate creates Walgate litigation management to handle securities group actions, admin work
Top 100 law firm Fladgate has launched a dedicated service to handle the growing administrative demands of group actions, allowing its lawyers to concentrate solely on legal work.
The firm’s new unit, Walgate Litigation Management, will focus heavily on securities litigation, managing the extensive non-legal tasks that accompany group claims. This includes identifying potential actions, assessing their viability, coordinating submissions to funders and insurers, and building books of institutional investors to support claims.
By stripping the administrative burden away from its fee earners, Fladgate hopes to streamline its group litigation operations and capitalise on the growing demand for securities actions, which involve representing groups of claimants—often investors—against large institutions.
Former Fladgate partner Steven Mash, an experienced litigator in this field, will lead the new venture as director. He will be joined by Noah Wortman, who takes on the role of head of strategy.
“Walgate Litigation Management identifies and assesses opportunities in the group action space for Fladgate to pursue,” Mash explained. “Once sustainable and meritorious claims have been identified, we then work with Fladgate to secure funding to bring the claim and build and manage the claimant book in securities actions. This ensures that the Fladgate team are freed up to focus on their priority—delivering first-class legal services to their clients.”
Walgate Litigation Management becomes the third service under the Walgate brand, alongside family office and debt solutions arms, all providing non-legal professional services designed to complement Fladgate’s legal offering. This structure reflects a growing trend among major firms to create specialised units to handle increasingly complex support functions, particularly in areas of law where volume litigation is on the rise.
Embed from Getty ImagesGroup actions, especially in the securities and competition fields, have surged in recent years as both regulatory scrutiny and investor activism have grown. At the same time, the administrative load involved in coordinating multiple claimants, funders, and insurers has become more burdensome for lawyers, often drawing them away from their core legal work.
With Walgate in place, Fladgate aims to address this challenge head-on, creating a more efficient structure that allows its disputes teams to concentrate fully on advocacy and legal strategy, while the new division handles the logistical complexity behind the scenes.
The move comes as Fladgate reports a strong financial performance. In the 2024/25 financial year, the firm’s revenue grew by 17% to £88m, while profit per equity partner topped £1m. Revenue from disputes work specifically rose by an impressive 28%, underlining the firm’s growing strength in contentious work.
Fladgate, which employs 370 staff based in central London, expects Walgate Litigation Management to play a key role in sustaining this momentum. By relieving lawyers of administrative distractions, the firm hopes to increase both client satisfaction and internal efficiency.
The firm’s decision also reflects a wider trend in the UK legal market, where mass litigation—especially class actions in the competition, data, and financial sectors—is becoming an increasingly lucrative but operationally complex practice area. Recent reports suggest that mass litigation could cost the UK economy as much as £18bn, underscoring both the scale and the stakes involved.
By creating Walgate Litigation Management, Fladgate positions itself at the forefront of this evolving market, offering a comprehensive end-to-end solution for group claims that blends legal expertise with specialist litigation management.
