Preston firm Ashton Fox has been bought by a rival after entering administration. Its collapse comes just weeks after the controversial fund which supported it was put into receivership.
Caymans-based Axiom Legal Financing Fund pumped millions into several UK firms including Ashton Fox which specialised in Group Litigation Orders - essentially class actions - in the hope that proceeds from settlements would be paid out as dividends to its investors. But the fund went into receivership in February and funding for the panel firms appears to have evaporated overnight. The fallout was almost immediate: in February RollOnFriday reported how panel firm Tandem Law had placed its entire workforce on notice (oh, except for its management team of course). The firm's managing director blamed Axiom and said he would sue them.
At the time Ashton Fox's operations manager insisted to RollOnFriday that everything was hunkydory round their place. However just four weeks later it has kicked the bucket.
There is some good news however. New owner Antony Hodari, which bought the firm in a pre-pack deal with administrators, has taken on all 24 staff. Mysteriously Ashton Fox's old website claims it had over 80 employees, although the ex-operations manager (now with Hodari) told RollOnFriday the figure was "historical". Clearly.
Until October the director of Axiom's investment manager was a UK solicitor, Tim Schools. A Solicitors Regulation Authority spokesperson confirmed that "we are prosecuting him at the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal" in connection with the management of the firm he sold last year, ATM Solicitors.
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Caymans-based Axiom Legal Financing Fund pumped millions into several UK firms including Ashton Fox which specialised in Group Litigation Orders - essentially class actions - in the hope that proceeds from settlements would be paid out as dividends to its investors. But the fund went into receivership in February and funding for the panel firms appears to have evaporated overnight. The fallout was almost immediate: in February RollOnFriday reported how panel firm Tandem Law had placed its entire workforce on notice (oh, except for its management team of course). The firm's managing director blamed Axiom and said he would sue them.
At the time Ashton Fox's operations manager insisted to RollOnFriday that everything was hunkydory round their place. However just four weeks later it has kicked the bucket.
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Ashton Foxed |
There is some good news however. New owner Antony Hodari, which bought the firm in a pre-pack deal with administrators, has taken on all 24 staff. Mysteriously Ashton Fox's old website claims it had over 80 employees, although the ex-operations manager (now with Hodari) told RollOnFriday the figure was "historical". Clearly.
Until October the director of Axiom's investment manager was a UK solicitor, Tim Schools. A Solicitors Regulation Authority spokesperson confirmed that "we are prosecuting him at the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal" in connection with the management of the firm he sold last year, ATM Solicitors.
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