One of the worst kept secrets in law was finally laid to rest this week when it was at last admitted that northern outfits DWF and Cobbetts were to merge. The tie-up is planned to go through in May.

Last November, an eagle-eyed mole tipped off RollOnFriday that the domain name dwfcobbetts.com had been registered. Which could only really mean one thing. At the time, Cobbetts claimed unconvincingly that the website registration had been the work of an "over-zealous IT worker" and that, although the firm was in the market for a merger, the domain name didn't really signify anything. Of course not.

Rumbled!

So no surprise this week when The Lawyer revealed that DWF will be merging with - surprise! - Cobbetts. The merger will go live in May, creating a major player in the North West.

However it's not quite as simple as that: sources at the firm have revealed that a number of Cobbetts partners, amongst them managing partner Michael Shaw, will not be joining DWF Cobbetts. Although no doubt that leak came from an over-zealous party pooper as neither DWF nor Cobbetts would comment.