Northern England-based solicitors Tandem Law has raised the bar for law firm redundancies by placing the entire firm (except, of course, the management team) on notice.

Tandem Law has blamed its Cayman-based backers for shutting off the supply of cash on which it relied, and has said it will sue them. The firm's managing director Andrew Lindsay told RollOnFriday that the number of job losses won't be known until the consultation is completed in March, but he hoped in the end it would only be a "small percentage" of employees.

A tandem heading for trouble downhill rapidly, yesterday

Tandem specialises in Group Litigation Orders - essentially class actions - such as the recent Mau Mau claim against the British Government. Many of these are funded by the Axiom Legal Financing Fund, which channels money to law firms in the hope of distributing chunky dividends based on any settlements back to its investors.

Or at least that's what the Axion fund did until Christmas, when it spectacularly imploded and went into receivership. Apparently the fund has loaned in the region of £100 million to panel law firms, including Tandem. But now the tap has been turned off, and Lindsay has said his firm will sue the fund manager and its directors for failing to deliver "what we were promised".  In the meantime Tandem has had to stop work on a large number of cases due to a lack of cash.