The Solicitors Regulation Authority has rebuffed calls to review its approach to pre-pack sales, amid renewed controversy over the buyout of high-profile law firm casualty Cobbetts by DWF.

Last Wednesday, the Gazette exclusively revealed that Cobbetts’ unsecured creditors are set to recoup just 2p in the pound from debts totalling £41m. ‘Several’ legal practices interested in the business got nowhere after DWF secured exclusivity.

There is no suggestion that the deal was improper. However, Andy Taylor, the solicitor representing Cobbetts’ pension scheme trustees, called on the regulator to look again at the way such deals are conducted. This is principally set out in the SRA’s Statement of Insolvency Practice (SIP) 16, introduced in 2009.

Earlier this month, the Commons Business, Innovations and Skills Committee recommended that the government look again at SIP 16 and pre-packs generally, citing concerns about transparency.

‘Despite the professional and legal rules designed to prevent abuse,’ the committee reported, ‘it is inevitable that a large proportion of pre-pack transactions will be structured to favour the owners of the business… at the expense of unsecured creditors.’

Taylor, head of restructuring and insolvency at Crawley firm asblaw, said: ‘The [administrator’s] report indicates that the SRA’s perspective is to protect clients and clients’ money. It’s the same in an intervention, when they notify clients and secure the clients’ money. But maybe the SRA should have a wider responsibility to creditors as well as to clients and partners.

‘It’s not the fact that a law firm has gone into administration and been rescued – that’s the whole point of the administration process. The perplexing thing is that members (partners) haven’t suffered to the extent that the creditors have.’

Asked if it would look again at pre-packs and SIP 16, an SRA spokesperson said: ‘The SRA’s increased focus on financial stability, including the express principle 8 in the Handbook to "run your business or carry out your role in the business effectively and in accordance with proper governance and sound financial and risk management principles", may well assist creditors and others dealing with law firms, as well as clients.

‘The SRA’s primary remit is to protect clients and protection of creditors is a matter for mainstream insolvency law.’