Specialist regulator the CLC has today intervened in conveyancing firm Alexander Grace Law (AGL), which collapsed over the summer owing £6m.

The north-west practice is already in the hands of administrators Begbies Traynor, as the Gazette reported last week. However, as part of a managed closure plan agreed in June, urgent matters were transferred to Stephensons Solicitors while most other clients moved their instructions to Amity Law.  Those live transactions have proceeded as expected, the CLC said.

AGL had undertaken to finalise outstanding post-completion matters. ‘The CLC has today stepped in to ensure that outstanding post-completion work, which Alexander Grace had said they would finalise, is actually completed,’ said the regulator. ‘This is an important step in client protection that is outside the remit of the administrators. This complements the CLC’s requirement from June 2023 that all live transactions be passed to other practices to ensure those clients were protected.’

Darren Yates gives a piggy back to jockey Frankie Dettori

Darren Yates (right) pictured with jockey Frankie Dettori

Source: David Cheskin/Alamy

Post-completion work is now being carried out by Stephensons, which will be contacting clients to secure their instructions to continue. Clients have the option to instruct another lawyer at no extra cost.

AGL's controlled closure plan was intended to be completed by September, enabling the firm to ‘recover work in progress which would have been sufficient to reduce the company’s debts’. However, tax authority HMRC pulled the plug on this timescale by instigating winding-up proceedings. 

Former AGL chief executive Darren Yates, a Lancashire property magnate and racehorse owner, is the firm’s biggest unsecured creditor. He pumped £2.9m into the business in the form of a loan but appears unlikely to see any dividend.

 

This article is now closed for comment.