The client
Our client, a longstanding well-regarded law firm with a historic legacy, found itself in financial difficulties after a number of partners retired in quick succession, in addition to facing challenges upon the integration of a new operational system. Given the circumstances they found themselves in, the firm struggled to remain competitive in the highly saturated legal market and sought advice from our experts.
What we did
Despite the financial difficulties the firm was facing, they were keen to save the business and ensure that client interests were protected by proactively engaging in a safe transition to a regulated successor practice. Following our initial consultation, it was apparent that an accelerated marketing campaign and sale would be required as well as providing key stakeholder management.
As market-leaders in working with distressed law firms, our team understood the time sensitivity and complexity of the situation. This was particularly important as not only are there additional considerations in regulated industries such as law firms, but the Solicitors Regulation Authority (‘SRA’) would expect client interests to be efficiently managed despite the financial difficulties.
Working with the remaining partners of the firm, a total of seven non-disclosure agreements were entered into to allow detailed management information to be provided to interested parties with a view to securing an offer. The limited cash reserves and prospects of securing further funding were such that a sale needed to be completed at short notice to minimise any risk of intervention into the firm from the SRA.
As an established law firm providing a range of legal advisory services, the firm already had a solid foundation on which the proposed buyer could build upon. It was clear however that the legacy archiving could jeopardise any sale and therefore negotiations with the proposed purchasers needed to be managed carefully to ensure that the archiving risks were mitigated.
We held numerous conversations with the potential buyer in order to negotiate favourable terms on behalf of the partners and ensure that the SRA was well appraised of developments at all times. After the terms of sale had been agreed, we were able to facilitate the sale of the business to the new acquirer.
The outcome
As a result of our quick action, we were able to concisely negotiate the sale of the business and operations were able to continue at the delight of the partners. The sale terms stated that all operations and assets were to be immediately transferred across to the new owner, a business law firm with offices in Exeter, Yeovil and Totnes. In addition to rescuing a longstanding local business, we were pleased to have also saved 34 jobs.
