A legal entrepreneur and influencer says she will focus on her unregulated legal business after the closure of her other firm.
Alice Stephenson, a writer, consultant and non-practising solicitor, said that Stephenson Law, the firm she founded in 2017, was liquidated in October after HM Revenue & Customs called in existing debts.
Instead Stephenson will continue to run her unregulated firm, Plume, which she said was ‘financially stable and completely unaffected by the liquidation [of Stephenson Law]’.
Writing on Linkedin in response to articles reporting her firm’s closure, Stephenson said: ‘I’ve made mistakes, and I’m always the first one to acknowledge them. I don’t understand why some people take joy from other people’s failures, particularly in the legal industry, but it makes it a very off-putting place to try and effect change, which has always been my mission.’
Stephenson has built a large number of followers on social media and is the author of (Out)Law: From Teenage Mum to Legal Trailblazer.
She started her firm as she was ‘disillusioned with the culture of traditional law firms and frustrated by the systemic issues within the industry’.
Stephenson said the firm owed a large amount to HMRC which it had been paying back every month, but HMRC chose to call the whole debt in, which forced the business into liquidation. There were no staff, clients or client money in the business.
A statement of affairs published on Companies House by liquidator Mazars LLP states that around £820,000 was owed to HMRC. The tax agency is listed as a preferential creditor but no assets are available to pay back this debt. There is also an £1.57m shortfall in money owed to non-preferential creditors.
Plume, set up in 2020, continues to operate as normal, Stephenson said. Its stated ambition is to support businesses by 'redefining what legal services look like and humanising lawyers in the process'.
Although it is not regulated by the SRA and cannot offer reserved legal services, it is able to employ SRA-authorised solicitors. It offers advice on commercial contracts, data protection, employment, intellectual property and corporate law.
The Plume website says that legal services and lawyers have a bad reputation, but it is ‘on a mission to change all that’ with ‘no stuffy suits, no legal jargon and no unexpected fees’.
