A U.S. private equity firm has become a “major shareholder” in listed U.K. law firm DWF by taking a multi-million pound stake in the business.

In a rare example of a law firm being backed by private equity, New York-based private equity firm Cartesian Capital Group now owns more than 3% of the total available share capital in DWF Group to hold 14,460,741 shares in the business, it announced on Thursday.