More than 1,000 boxes of wills and deeds remain to be claimed from member firms of the Metamorph Group which were closed down last year, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has said as it revealed the scale of the intervention. Its intervention agent, Gordons LLP, has posted a web page for anyone looking for information about the six closed firms.
The SRA intervened into the practices last month to protect client interests after the Metamorph Group ran in to financial difficulties. The intervention is one of the largest the SRA has handled since its formation in 2007, closing the firms involved and visiting 12 different offices across England. 'We had more than 1,000 boxes of live matters that the agent needed to deal with by advising the clients to find alternative solicitors,' the spokesperson said.
Apart from the wills and deeds, nearly 60,000 boxes of files relating to closed matters will need to be collected. The electronic files recovered take up 3 terabytes of storage.
The Gordons website states that the SRA is collecting all clients’ files and documents from the firms’ offices for safekeeping but admits 'We cannot give a timescale for when this process will be complete.'
A note for employees of the closed firms states: 'We understand this is a difficult time for you. Our role is however solely focused on the protection of clients and assisting them in whatever way we can. We are not a representative of or successor practice to the firms. We are therefore unable to deal with issues relating to your employment. We suggest you seek independent legal advice.'
Anatomy of a collapse: read John Hyde's analysis of Metamorph's demise in this week's Gazette magazine.
