Origin Equity are now washing its hands of it, they wont pour a single penny more in to it, and presumably have been unable to sell it, ( this being the third PE owner including what was Paribis/Plexus).
I just don't know where they go from here, who will want this basket base of a firm. Certainly not Clydes, 100% not DACB, who does that leave. No PE Investor will go near it, unless EV is discounted to pennies.
What is it about law firms and their inability to manage a business properly or at all.
Dunno. Aren’t they daft?
*chuckles wryly*
They are very daft. Well perhaps not two of the partners who have now taken millions of the table twice, and both iterations of Parabis/Plexus have gone pop. Doubtless this version will go pop and the senior partners will buy it back in a pre pack.
Eeeee…what are they like?
*shakes head*
DWF ebitda? Kennedys?
I doubt it, I suspect they would have been approached before. And Limerston Capital was the last roll of the dice. Nigel Knowles of DWF, formerly the longstanding senior partner at DLA, hates Insurance work. He ochestrated a position where all the insurance teams ( including the high end stuff) felt they had to find a new home. Loads went to Clydes.
I reckon that said, you may have a point. They will pick off the decent bits by making direct approaches, and leave DACB with the crap. I have looked at the latest accounts of the claims solution group at DACB, and they make for grim reading.
Know that re Nigel's background ebitda, suppose big difference is insurance is far more important to DWF than it ever was to DLA so would be hard to jettison as the commercial work done by DWF is pretty crap compared to what DLA did and much lower in total fee income to the insurance stuff.
Think DACB keeping their claims arm is probably down to two things. Insurer clients being pissed off at the loss of a one stop shot. Also most importantly no takers- can't see how you can make money doing low level defendant shite.
Good points Warren. I am intrigued where it will all end. As I say I think I reckon Clydes, Kennedys will pick off the fat, and leave DACB with the bones..
Alook at the accounts, show it is almost pointless from an investment thesis point of view and qualatatively speaking also
Don't really think there is any fat to pick off ebitda lol. Imagine a chunk will also go to the bottom of the market insurance firms Keoghs, Horwich Farrelly.
At Clyde's there's already push back from the high margin parts of the firm for even good insurance work as rates are just comparatively crap. That coupled with the the BLM acquisition makes me think they wont take much.
If DACB still harbour ambitions to sell the claims group diluting margins by adding more crap makes less sense. Haven't looked at the accounts but sure you are right. Only makes sense to do that work if you also get higher rate work- which of course doesn't apply if you carve off the crap side.
Think destination will be Kennedys, DWF and DACB in that order.
Administrators being appointed. They're fooked.
Madness CW, that 3 iterations of Plexus now have entered an admin process. I wonder if the senior partners will buy it back in a pre pack. If it were me I wouldn't bother, the senior partners have taken millions of the table on three ocassions . Just retire mate.
Now watch the vultures pick of the best bits
what is plexus law
fook me am I glad I decided to change practice area away from insurance lit.
Yep. Think will just be wholesale collapse now Ebitda. Maybe Weightmans might be interested. Laz it is a law firm that specialised in low level insurance litigation.
Shrewd move buzz lol.
As a former Insurance litigator, doing the premium stuff , professional negligence, claims arising from E&O,D&O liabilities , policy wording stuff, product liability, the work is genuinely interesting and intellectually challenging.
The issue was LLoyds and specialist insurers used to primarily write this business, and the rates were decent, and the work profitable. Then the composite Insurers , think RSA, Zurich and Brit started buying their books of business . With that panel firms had to take all the fixed fee low end PI stuff, prof neg, property damage claims to get the hourly specialist work. Then these Insurers started chipping away at the hourly rate stuff, more and more , where you had senior talented partners doing very complex stuff in central london at 300 quid an hour. And every retendering process Insurers wanted more for less.
Partners wanted to keep this work and their was a trickle down effect where Assistants, Associates, and Senior associates were being fed mountains of fixed fee bollocks. Think 3k for defending a 50k prof neg claim.... Then people left in droves and re-fashioned themselves, when management told them the work to remain profitable had to be done from sheffield, move or look for a new job
The firms themselves are to blame, allowing the insurers to pay pennies. There aren't many specialist defendant law firms, they should have stood firm.
Think ebitda's summary of that type of work is pretty accurate. The model still works well for the senior equity partners at say Clyde's or Kennedys. For everyone below that a race to the bottom.
Yeah CW, if your mid- senior equity at the firms you mention, you are golden. Clydes used yo publish in their accounts the range of equity and it was 350k, to 2.5MM, although the top figure will be a handful.
A good mate who is managing associate and has been given the tap on the shoulder, to go through the partnership process. He does prof neg work in the main ( high end hourly rate specialist stuff).
He has seen the numbers for Insurance litigaton partners and the spread is 200k to £1.5MM. Decent money for working 9-6 max, no all nighters, and certainly never leaving at 11PM
Yep ebitda. Suppose issue is for commercial clients you would get SAs earning not far off what junior partners would get there- and without all of the partner BS.
CW, exactly, All this bollocks let to BLGs demise. They stood firm, only wanted to do decently, well paid hourly rate Insurance work. It worked well for ages, until they refused to do fixed fee dross.
They were able to hold that line for ages, but ultimately it was their downfall. A cracking com lit/insurance it firm, one of the very best, across both areas.
Interesting Ebitda. My understanding was that their demise was due to trying to gey involved in high end transactional work, bought lots of partners in from better firms on good wodge who had no work than the global financial crisis fooked em.
And that CW, bought loads of under perfoming junior mc partners in , and even SAs who never got the nod to build corporate transactional teams at hugeee expense and it never worked out.
Com lit/insurance partners were pissed off and left and that started the decline for sure
The other thing that hurt them was com lit partners suing the insurers clients on a large scale! Re those insurance partner numbers at clydes think there will be lots of bd- so wouldn't think it's quite an easy a life. Also Clyde's is the top end of the sector. Think at the other insurance firms would get significantly less.
Thought Clyde's just had senior associate than director rather than MA?
Hopefully Carpenters next.
PI needs to get in the sea.
All this bollocks let to BLGs demise. They stood firm, only wanted to do decently, well paid hourly rate Insurance work. It worked well for ages, until they refused to do fixed fee dross.
BLG???
Barlow Lyde & Gilbert Jamie. It used to be the leading professional negligence outfit - was absorbed by Clyde's about 12-13 years back.
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