Florida Personal Injury Law Firm, Multi-Partner Practice Since 2007

$5.9M

Revenue

$2.2M

SDE

3.6x

Multiple

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Full Editorial Writeup

This is a Florida personal injury law firm founded in 2007, running a multi-partner contingency-fee practice with a 16-year operating history and a track record of large settlements including recoveries of $25M, $7M, and $3M. The firm generates $5.9M in annual revenue against roughly $2.2M to $2.3M in EBITDA, a reported margin near 39%, which is strong for a plaintiff-side PI shop and reflects both efficient operations and a diet of high-value cases. It operates from leased premises, so capital intensity is low and the value is almost entirely in the case pipeline, partner talent, referral network, and brand.

The practice serves injured claimants in a regional Florida market and positions itself as a dominant local player, leaning on generational family ties, community reputation, and a litigation partner with 20-plus years of specialized experience. A meaningful annual marketing spend feeds a consistent flow of new cases, which is the lifeblood of any PI firm since every dollar of revenue must be re-won case by case.

The deal is priced at $7.95M, about 3.61x cash flow, with seller financing available up to $2.5M. Three partners are retiring, but two partners are staying on post-close and staff retention is planned, which is the single most important structural feature for continuity in a business where the rainmakers and their referral relationships are the actual asset.

Why we like it

Earnings quality looks real on the surface: $5.9M revenue at roughly $2.2M cash flow is a ~37% owner-earnings margin, and PI contingency work is high-gross-margin because the main costs are labor and case advances. The caveat is that PI revenue is lumpy and settlement-timing dependent, so the quality of these earnings hinges on a multi-year track record rather than one big year.
Durability comes from a 16-year brand, a deep referral network, and a litigation partner with 20-plus years of experience, which are hard to replicate quickly. In plaintiff PI, reputation and referral relationships function as a genuine moat because injured people and referring attorneys route cases to firms they trust.
Personal injury is durable across cycles: accidents, negligence, and injuries do not stop in a recession, and contingency fees mean clients pay nothing up front, so demand holds even when household budgets tighten. This is one of the more recession-resistant corners of legal services.
The operator advantage here is the transition structure: two partners remaining post-sale plus retiring partners available during handover directly addresses the biggest risk in buying a professional practice, which is that the talent and relationships walk out the door at close. Full staff retention is planned, preserving continuity of active case files.
The price is reasonable at 3.61x cash flow with up to $2.5M in seller financing on offer, which lets a qualified buyer put meaningful skin in the game on the seller side and aligns incentives through the earnout of that note. Seller paper covering nearly a third of the price is a strong signal of confidence.

How to improve it

Lock down the rainmakers with formal, multi-year employment agreements and non-competes for the two staying partners before close, and consider an earnout tied to case originations. In a PI firm the partners ARE the pipeline, so any deal that does not contractually retain them is buying a shell.
Audit and optimize the marketing spend by channel within the first 90 days, mapping cost per signed case and cost per settled case across TV, digital, and referral sources. If the firm is spending heavily without tracking case-level ROI, there is likely immediate margin to reclaim or reallocation to higher-yield channels.
Build a referring-attorney and prior-client reactivation program to reduce reliance on paid marketing. Systematizing referral relationships and past-client outreach lowers customer acquisition cost and creates a more predictable case flow than pure advertising.
Implement case management software and standardized intake, valuation, and settlement workflows if not already in place, so case throughput does not depend on any single partner's memory. This makes the practice more scalable and materially more valuable at your eventual exit.
Diversify the case mix and consider adding paralegal and associate leverage so partners spend time on high-value litigation rather than routine files. Increasing the ratio of support staff to partners is the classic lever for expanding margins in a law practice.
Establish a disciplined case-advance and lien-tracking system to manage working capital, since PI firms front costs for years before settlement. Tightening the cash conversion cycle on advanced expenses directly improves free cash flow.
Explore a tuck-in or lateral hire of another PI attorney with their own book to replace the departing partners' origination capacity over time. Adding proven originators is the fastest way to backfill the pipeline the three retiring partners historically fed.

Diligence notes

Get a 5-year case-level revenue history to separate recurring baseline case flow from one-time mega-settlements. The advertised $25M, $7M, and $3M recoveries could mean the trailing earnings are inflated by a few outsized wins that will not repeat, so normalize revenue against typical annual case volume and average fee.
Reconcile the EBITDA and cash flow figures, which are quoted inconsistently as $2.2M and $2.3M, and confirm whether partner compensation has been properly added back or replaced with market-rate salaries. If the departing partners were doing origination and litigation work, you must budget for replacement labor, which lowers true buyer earnings.
Verify the active case inventory: number of open files, stage of each, expected settlement values, and the amount of advanced case costs on the books. The real asset being sold is the pipeline of in-progress cases, so understanding its size, timing, and quality is central to the valuation.
Confirm the retention terms and true intentions of the two remaining partners, and quantify how much of historical origination came from the three retiring partners versus the two staying. If the departing partners were the primary rainmakers, the go-forward case flow could drop sharply regardless of staff retention.
Scrutinize the marketing spend line and whether it is sustainable and effective, since the listing flags a 'significant annual marketing investment' as the case pipeline driver. Understand the fixed advertising commitments, contracts, and how case volume responds if that spend is cut.

Source

Originally listed on BizBuySell. View original listing →