Beverly Hills-based equity firm Levine Leichtman Capital Partners announced Dec. 1 that it has sold BL Rankings, doing business as Best Lawyers, a well-known peer review guide for legal professionals, in a deal with the publication’s previous ownership.

More commonly known as LLCP, the firm regularly acquires, invests in and sells platforms and companies. It had held BL Rankings for just over three years.

Though the terms of the sale have not been officially disclosed, a source familiar with the sale said the investment has generated a return of more than three times the invested capital over the course of its ownership. The terms of that 2018 sale were never publicly disclosed.

Tannaz Chapman, a managing director at LLCP, said that since the equity firm’s initial investment, it had made “significant investments in management, sales and marketing, and new product development that enabled (Best Lawyers) to expand its offering and substantially accelerate growth, both in the U.S. and
internationally.”

Phillip Greer, chief executive of Best Lawyers, spoke on behalf of the company’s management team in praise of LLCP and his new colleagues at Abry Partners, a private equity firm currently managing $5 billion of capital that partnered to acquire the publication.
 
Abry acquired the company in a partnership with the publication’s current executive team though exact details were not disclosed.

Published for nearly four decades, Best Lawyer’s website describes itself as the “oldest and most respected peer review ranking service in the global legal community,” reaching a readership of nearly 20 million. It operates through three main brands: Best Lawyers (its flagship peer review directory), Best Law Firms and the Lawyer Directory — a comprehensive listing of U.S. lawyers.

Nick Scola, a partner at Abry, said in a statement that the firm would “partner with the team to help accelerate growth” while investing in the “people, technology and resources that will further enhance the company’s product and service offerings.”
 
The transaction officially closed in late November. Citizens Capital Markets Inc. acted as the exclusive financial adviser to Best Lawyers and Levine Leichtman Capital Partners. Best Lawyers’ legal adviser was Honigman, and Abry was advised by Kirkland & Ellis.

This disposition marks the eighth sale of the year for LLCP, which manages around $9 billion in assets across offices in Stockholm; London; The Hague, Netherlands; and a number of U.S. cities.