The client
Our client was the largest failure ever in the UK legal market. The firm had 163 partners, over 900 staff and in excess of £177 million revenues, with 5,000 clients and 12,000 ‘active’ live matters.
With the real prospect of intervention by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (‘SRA’), given the need to protect the public interest, this required careful communication at the outset in order to advise the SRA that sales could be completed, and client interests could be protected.
What we did
We were asked to meet with the secured lender after its panel firm had incurred c£1.5 million advisory fees in five months and withdrew from the project as the lender was uncomfortable with having to underwrite c£1 million+ of administration costs. We were invited to review the position in the absence of any other panel firm being able to act at such short notice. Following an accelerated review, we agreed to act as Administrators.
We developed a collaborative approach with the lender, based on our in-depth knowledge and experience in the legal sector and were able to swiftly intervene.
The outcome
Due to our quick action and open communicative style with the lender, we were able to successfully realise significant value. There has been £16.3 million realised to date with £7.4 million distributed to the lender under its floating charge. It is anticipated that further distributions will be made following the conclusion of some ongoing residual litigation.
