S&W expands advisory business services with acquisition of ClearViewIP
Professional services group S&W has expanded its offering to clients after reaching an agreement to acquire the global intellectual property advisory firm ClearViewIP. The news adds 10 experts and two partners to S&W’s headcount.
Founded originally as Smith & Williamson, S&W is a fast-growing UK accounting and advisory firm. After investment from funds advised by Apax Partners took the firm back to independence in 2024, it rebranded as S&W, building on the firm’s original heritage – launching with around 1,800 employees and more than 120 partners operating from 15 towns and cities in the UK and Ireland.
As it sought to kick on from this, S&W announced in May 2025 that it would expand its services: venturing into regulatory consulting for the first time. Months later, S&W looked to further build on its momentum, with a major acquisition of Irish professional services firm Beechwood Partners. Now, S&W has further bolstered its offering, with a deal for ClearViewIP.
First established in 2007, ClearViewIP helps organisations generate value from their innovations through strategic management of their intangible assets. The London-based firm offers clients intellectual property (IP) strategy, operational, and transactional advisory services across a broad spectrum of market sectors.
Andrew Wilkes, CEO at S&W commented, “I’m delighted to welcome the team from ClearViewIP to S&W. Broadening our range of complementary services is central to our vision of being the go-to professional services firm for dynamic businesses and private clients with complex needs. Our acquisition of ClearViewIP gives us the ability to respond to demand we are seeing for intellectual property advisory services and helps deepen our relationship with clients.”
Head of M&A and corporate development Rick Chana said via a LinkedIn post, “Delighted to complete on our second transaction of 2025! ClearViewIP is a truly market leading global intellectual property advisory firm and we are very proud to be welcoming Jon Calvert, Josue Ortiz-Ramirez and team into S&W.”
Complementary services
The acquisition of ClearViewIP will complement the existing advisory services that S&W currently offers its clients including corporate finance, valuations, transaction services and forensic services, along with business tax, audit, consulting and business outsourcing services.
The ClearViewIP team comprises experienced IP professionals, with decades of experience in managing, protecting and commercialising innovation and ensuring best practise IP approaches are deployed to help clients win in the market. As part of the deal, two partners and 10 employees will join S&W’s advisory business from ClearViewIP.
Jon Calvert, partner at ClearViewIP, noted, “As ClearViewIP looks to continue its rapid expansion, S&W, with strong financial backing from Apax Funds, offered us a unique opportunity to scale quickly and rapidly build a team to meet the growing demand from our clients. As intangibles increasingly drive more value, the opportunity to embed our IP advisory services with an integrated advisory offering proved very compelling”.
