Scottish firm fails
Scottish commercial firm Semple Fraser has announced it intends to appoint administrators.
In a statement released today, the firm said it had been ‘severely affected’ by the downturn and contraction in parts of the corporate, property and construction sectors.
It added that following an exhaustive review of operations, partners decided that the business was no longer sustainable.
Managing partner Simon Etchells said: ‘It is with great regret that after having considered every possible option to secure the future of the business it was clear that administration is the only option.’
Lorna Jack, chief executive of the Law Society of Scotland, said: ‘It is very sad news to hear that Semple Fraser is to go into administration. Many law firms have struggled during the economic downturn, however that is no consolation to those who make the difficult decision to close their business and the impact it has on their colleagues.
‘It’s our understanding that the partners at Semple Fraser have explored and exhausted all options to try to secure the future of the business but, unfortunately, administration is now the only route available.’
The firm was formed in 1993 and has 20 partners and around 100 staff. It has offices in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Manchester, where around 16 people are employed. The firm specialises in property, renewables, construction, finance and waste.
Comments
My guess is:
The profession is turning into an industry. The law has become a business like no other. Its subject to increasing competition. The monopoly is deteriorating. Im not too confident that the LLP business models are that well geared to cope in this environment.
CFO's and FD's are now more influential than ever and there is a continual pressure within client organisations to reduce costs and for supporting firms to demonstrate 'competitive value'.
Im not sure firms truly understand what they need to do in this current climate to make 'law' pay. It almost seems far easier for them to close doors and ply trade elsewhere.
This time in 2014 - my guess is 50 reasonably sized firms will have disappeared. OK thats not a major figure in the grand scheme of things but if those firms are replaced by organisations like BT Law - then there is a real chance that the traditional law firm model in the future will be a thing of the past - apart from a 'Big 4' and a few niche providers.
I went to a friends award of a Masters degree in Marketing 3 years ago. Only a handful of people had sat the course and completed it.
Over 300 people that day were awarded an LL.b.
Firms in Financial Trouble
I am a retired Solicitor having retiredsome 6yrs ago but I read the Law Society's Gazzette and it saddens me to see the number of Firms going to the Wall and those around being helpless to assist
I have over the years seen successive Governments devalue not only a Solicitors qualification but every other Proffessional Qualification whilst at the same time the same governments demand the Highest Standards with ever decreasing reward for the Proffession
It would be interesting to see if Parliament had a Common Politics Examination how many MP would pass such exam
David Cameron and his office keep bombarding with e-mails seeking my support I keep asking him whether he has heard of Equitable Life the response has been deafening
I think the Profession has to be seen to by rallies and the like event to highlight the Professions
plight
The Law Society must vigorously support such events
.The time has long gone when Polite Meetings were the order of the day as this government has no respect for anyuone despite its rhetoric
The Best of Luck
Standards
What standards are we protecting if a retired solicitor (or so it is stated) is not familiar with the correct spelling of (inter alia) the word "professional"?? Maybe a new broom is indeed required!
Grow up
Maybe he just hit "f" twice by mistake.
The reality is that change is
The reality is that change is here and lot of firms are going to go to the wall over the twelve months. The conclusion of the consultation on Friday will be yet another nail in the coffin for the profession and no sector will be safe from further downward pressures on income.
Anybody doing law in university with aspirations of beng a solicitor needs to be sat down and told to take a long hard look at their future prospects, before taking on further debt. Likewise LPC providers owe a duty to educate the students about reality before taking their parents hard earned.
The future is far from bright and our governing body have done nothing to stop the onslaught. They have absolutely no place in the future of the profession, the Fsa may as well govern us. I see no incentive to renew my practicing certificate and may as well just form a consultancy and advise clients on this basis.
just do it
Jason
You absolutely should surrender your practising certificate and go via the consultancy route.
I just set up my own "unregulated" probate practice but I'm not holding any money or documents etc.
The insurance costs were less than a TENTH of what I would have paid for insurance as a solicitor. I also didn't have to ask for permission to set up or pay a shedload of money to a bunch of bureaucrats to confirm I'm safe to practice - like they could tell anyway.
I get to act in the way I wish to act (professionally of course) without fear of reprisal by someone who knows nothing about law.
costs are tiny in comparison and the feeling of freedom is fantastic.
now if I could just actually GET some clients (only set up two weeks ago).
best to all
Just Do It?
Congrats Jason,
I'm also putting final touches to my own employment and immigration consultancy and the accompanying sanity and well-being is simply amazing. Now free from the threats of unreasonable regulators and financial wastage!
good luck
Good luck to you Trevor. I think we may be the first wave of the exodus.
The powers that be seem to have forgotten that the profession as a whole martials a considerable expertise and willingness to fight given half a chance
so here's my proposal to firms currently in trouble. If I've misunderstood any regs, then I'm sure someone will be kind enough to correct me. I'm afraid it only really works if you're not an old-fashioned partnership.
1. see the writing on the wall.
2. come off the roll and put the solicitors practice into administration.
3. set up another company - transfer as many staff and assets as possible to save jobs.
4. walk away from the large part of your debts. and away from SRA regulation etc.
5. setup as a consultancy - engage counsel for all hearings etc and file all court paperwork etc in the name of client so that you are not "conducting litigation".
6. be able to make a fair profit!
I admit it's a bit sparse as plans go but you get the idea. time we used all these marvellous commercial rules to our advantage.
best to all
standards
If Mr P Teazle has nothing better to say at 18.10 than to comment on my typing then he is obviously not interested in the plight of some solicitors but there are non so blind as those who do not want to see
before reading the last post
before reading the last post I was going to comment on the cheapness of Teazle's post but probably no need now.
A proffession has been changed to an industry. I am a partner in a small high street firm who having seen the writing on the wall have decided to call it a day - even though we are currently making money come the inevitable day when we are not we could not afford the administration route. So we are giving up and I no longer have a job and we feel we will be letting down the clients we have a professional obligation to. We are very sad a bout this. But then, why should I have a professional obligation if I am only a cog in an industry.
This post isn't spell checked btw
Sadness
Madam President and Mr Hudson
Are you reading this?
Is this an example of the type of outcome now desired by the Law Society?
Sad indeed when hard working solicitors throw in the towel overwhelmed by the sense of being abandoned by their own professional body
30% of solicitors firms to close in April
So said a story this week in The Daily Post predicting carnage in North Wales. These are not cheering times.
Go In House
I am only 5 years' qualified and I have recently moved in house. I simply got fed up of the stress and insecurity of private practice. Unfortunately, the future for private law firms appears bleak, however, the opportunities for in house solicitors are on the rise with far nicer working conditions! Sometimes it is better to accept the change and move on.
Spivs' charter
It seems that it might be sensible for trainee solicitors to have to spend a compulsory 6 months working for an insolvency practitioner, so as to learn the most efficient way to legally screw your creditors once qualified.
As it seems that we are no longer expected to honour our debts there are inevitably going to be a number of solicitors who will make a deliberate decision to exploit the goodwill that still attaches to what used to be an honourable profession, and take advantage of all the credit they can obtain to line their pockets.
Once they've exhausted the credit available they can just ring up Slimy Sid from Vulture & Co, Insolvency Practitioners to the Legal Profession, who will put together a handy pre-pack, dump those annoying creditors and Hey Presto! A nice fat bank account for the solicitor and no irritating debts to pay.
Solicitors should simply not be allowed to behave like this. It wasn't that long ago that they were unable to hide behind limited liability, and I can’t understand why the law was changed. If you know it's your own money and assets that are on the line when making a commercial decision that decision is likely to be a lot more carefully thought through.
With the ability to do a pre-pack this no longer applies. It's now worth taking a gamble by trying to borrow your way out of problems as if it all goes pear-shaped you can walk away relatively unscathed.
just do it
At the great age of 52.with a good client base ,and good staff i like many others have had enough.If i were left alone to manage my business i could maintain a modest profit and continue to employ the 20 or so staff.However whilst i can manage the work which is challenging enough,like other i am overburdened with regulation which prohibits me from concentrating properly on the most important element namely the clients and the Law.
Those that have presided over this debacle should hang their heads in shame.I do not want to spend the remaining part of my career collecting Law Society badges to prove i am fit and proper to operate in a particular area of law or allowing myself to submit to audits by non practicing solicitors or former supermarket employees employed by the LSC or those private bodies now engaged in this business opportunity.
To those that govern us ,regulate us. Shame on you!!!!!
shame
I agree with" disgruntled", and I am older, but I still want to fight. I am however a bit despondent.
I think that reality has probably caught up with the Law Society and they are listening. I hope so!
I have a private client/ farming client base in Suffolk. Reflecting on the nub of the service I give, most of it does not consist of reserved activities,but generally ends up as such.
We advise on employment matters,for example, but our base costs are much higher than our "non reserved" competitors. The value which I hope I add in inheritance planning does not lie in reserved matters,but the cost of regulation and PII cover which ensue from being advising as a solicitor massively increase the overheads.
I think that the way forward is to form companies dealing with these activities and withdraw from regulation. I do not really need to be called a solicitor,with all the regulation that entails, to look after my clients. Sad really, but the Law Society has allowed this to happen.
Disillusioned
Like Gerry and Disgruntled I run my own firm and have done so for the past 15 years - approaching 50 I am getting tired out with compliance and badge gathering to prove that after all these years I am damn good at what I do - tired of the big boys in banking considering my firm is too small to do its job properly so panel membership is off limits notwithstanding every file is audited and supervised by a solicitor with not less thabn 5 years PQE
I employ 15 staff - 9 qualified or semi qualified 2 cashiers and 4 support staff all of whom are invaluable to how we serve our clients
Each year my firm contributes over £450000 in tax to the government coffers (VAT and PAYE) and personally my partners and I add another £150,000 in personal tax
The red tape is strangling us and who cares absolutely no one - what does it achieve in terms of client satisfaction (AKA 'outcome focused' service delivery) - nothing!
We had avisit from the Compliance and monitoring section of the SRA - couple of thoroughly nice chaps who have been on more courses than in the past 3 years to earn their Compliance Officer Stripes than I have in 25 years at the coal face - but have never actually been solicitors or done the job
Then they told me they felt thet one member of staff had not done his job properly in their opinion - notwithstanding no client complaints and client satisfaction surveys all first class but according to them the rules said or could be 'interpreted' that we had not provided an appropriate level of service so we needed to pull our socks up!!!!!!!
Then I read of the Cobbettes and Halliwells debacles and the manner certain people of behaved with impunity (as well as creditors losing 100m+) and I wonder what the hell did I join this profession for - oh yes I now realise - we are now an industry so screw the professional issues and do anything provided you make a shed load of dough and are big eough to tell the SRA to shove it
I may as well forget the Solicitor badge (more of an anchor in a lifevest) - wind up the firm via administration and avoid paying for run off - set up tomorrow as a licensed conveyancer and provide the other 60% of non-regulated legal services in another format
Chin up and don't let the
Chin up and don't let the ffellows grind you
Please contact me for a chat
Back to the subject
I sincerely hope that the partners of Semple Fraser do not repeat the Cobblers ffiasco. Integrity is non-negotiable. Or rather, should be.
Simple Truths
Will it become routine for partners in law firms to tarnish the reputation of all solicitors by vanity expansion but walking away from the consequences of their reckless management ?
Once there was a proud profession, with a real sense of coherence with an ethical glue binding all together, in a single committment to act in the best interest of the client.
As we head into the weekend our leaders, and in the case of the Law Society, the Council, must reflect how did we reach the point of decent solicitors such as described above throwing in the towel, crushed by a cruel indifference to their fate in the face of a hostile government and regulatory fundamentalism?
Pre-pack administration
The pre-pack administrationsale is a legal way of selling a business to the third party, and it helps in maintaining business continuity.
Or not, as the case may be
All that pre-packs do is line the pockets of that sub-species known as insolvency practitioners at the expense of decent businesses who get screwed.
We always hear this rubbish about how they preserve jobs of the business that's pre-packed. We never hear of those who lose their jobs at the unpaid creditors that go bust.
Pre-packs are nothing more than licensed fraud.
back to basics
Dear All
Please see below s1 of the Legal Services Act 2007
1The regulatory objectives(1)In this Act a reference to “the regulatory objectives” is a reference to the objectives of—
(a)protecting and promoting the public interest;
(b)supporting the constitutional principle of the rule of law;
(c)improving access to justice;
(d)protecting and promoting the interests of consumers;
(e)promoting competition in the provision of services within subsection (2);
(f)encouraging an independent, strong, diverse and effective legal profession;
(g)increasing public understanding of the citizen's legal rights and duties;
(h)promoting and maintaining adherence to the professional principles.
Given that all the new Code of Conduct seem to do little to improve (d) and to my mind appear to actively undermine most of the rest, is there nothing that can be done?
I leave this to higher powered legal minds than mine!
Disillusioned
Legal Coalface I feel much the same. Sick and tired of all the wasted time and energy, intolerable overheads making it ever harder to compete & banks seizing the opportunity to eliminate small law firms from the home buying market.
Paul Bassett of APBasset Solicitors in Lostwithiel is leading a determined campaign to tell Parliament about the impact the bank panel issue is having on the viability of smaller law firms and the communities they serve.
The question was raised in Prime Ministers question time in February & the PM agreed to investigate.
See http://www.ingeniousbritain.biz/weekly-news/reader-stories/big-banks-bad-for-local-business/1014/100038A and Banksbad4biz.wordpress.com
Lend your support if you can, maybe someone will start listening, on this issue if nothing else.
The Banks
What amazes me is there is a certain bank whosr lead panel adviser they refer mortgage work to is Countrywide - so solicitors are now being vetted by Licensed Conveyancers
You start to wonder what benefits there are in having the wprd solicitor in the title
I will lend my support to Paul Bassett