Pirate theme unconfirmed.
The new owners of Ince celebrated its latest reincarnation by flying staff to London from the firm's remaining international offices for a party which climaxed with a personalised nightclub welcome.
Lawyers from Hong Kong, Shanghai, Dubai, Greece, Cyprus and Glasgow landed last week for the shindig which began in Kensington Gardens and ended behind the VIP ropes in Mayfair.
A spokesperson described the party to RollOnFriday as a “relaxed get together” which capped "a long day of meetings”, although sadly skeleton crews missed out: “Whilst everyone was invited, not everyone can make it as we do need to keep the various offices manned”.
According to a source the party ended up at the Reign nightclub where staff enjoyed swigging champagne, “women in G-strings”, and a personalised welcome (see pic below) from the Axiom Ince CEO, who arranged the celebration.
Ince in da cluuuub!
The London Reign Show Club bills itself as “a world of opulence and sensuous glamour” and “the jewel in the Mayfair crown”, where a table for ten is understood to cost a minimum of £1,000.
It’s a far cry from the travails of old Ince, which was snapped up in a pre-pack administration deal in May for £2.2m by AxiomDWFM following a chaotic period which encompassed restaurant rudeness, auditing disasters, and share suspensions.
Under the terms of the purchase, Ince & Co is now a separate operating entity of AxiomDWFM, and managed independently as a branded firm.
So far, incoming Ince & Co chief executive Donald Brown and managing partner Jennette Newman remain in place.
Brown distanced himself from his firm’s collapse when the purchase was announced, commenting that, “After taking over the management of the PLC group, it quickly became apparent that we needed to address a series of poorly structured and executed transactions and expansions”.
When Ince first fell into administration in 2018 it was acquired by Gordon Dadds as part of an expansion strategy which relied heavily on pre-pack deals, drawing criticism from some quarters for the way in which creditors were left in the cold.
This time around the firm went bust owing hundreds of creditors a total of £41m. As a secured creditor, Investec Bank may see a return of its £17m “subject to costs”, while HMRC might receive 4.6p in the pound in respect of its £15m debt.
But the other unsecured creditors will receive nothing. They include law firms, owed amounts ranging from the piddling (Weightmans: £240, Mills & Reeve: £300, Forsters: £1k, Blake Morgan: £2.5k, BDB Pitmans: £2.3k), to the enough-to-irk-the-matter-partner-concerned (NRF: £8.4k, Penningtons Manches: £8k, RPC: £7.7k, Pinsent Masons: £21.7k, and £6.6k to shipping insurance rival HFW, which can’t help but seem like a parting shot from Ince as it sunk beneath the waves), to the stinging £181k owed to WFW.
However, barristers were amongst the worst impacted, particularly since they were owed as individuals. Among those whose champagne glasses might have cracked in their hands had they attended Reign were six tenants at 7 Kings Bench Walk, who lost more than £373k between them, seven 20 Essex Court barristers who were left out of pocket to the tune of £354k, and a Selborne Chambers KC whose £124k invoice will remain unpaid.
Other notable creditors included Brighton & Hove Football Club (£1k), taxpayers in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets (£612k), the London Stock Exchange, where Ince provided such entertainment to investors and onlookers alike (£34k), the SRA (£1.4k), and, fittingly, a company called Perfect Storm (£8k). Ince & Co’s own General Counsel, Philip Langford, appears to be down £185k having been employed by Ince on a consultancy basis.
AxiomDWFM was created two years ago when Axiom Stone merged with DWFM Beckman, and is expanding rapidly under Managing Partner Pragnesh Modhwadia.
As broken by ROF, AxiomDWFM also bought defendant personal injury firm Plexus in a pre-pack administration deal a fortnight ago.
Plexus’s administrator, Interpath, was keen to emphasise that the sale enabled it to preserve hundreds of jobs which may otherwise have been lost, in a defence of the pre-pack process.
“Right from their initial expression of interest, Axiom were determined and committed to acquiring the practice, safeguarding jobs and importantly, helping to protect client interests”, it said.
A Plexus source complained to ROF that staff who opted not to TUPE over to AxiomDWFM were “treated appallingly” by the old Plexus regime.
“My team leader has been called a 'distracting influence', and blamed for her team members making their own decisions to leave. We have also been ignored, with the partners having chats and catch ups with staff who will remain after the transfer, but not with us. It is unacceptable how they are treating us”, said the insider. But that was old Plexus: remaining staff should expect a custom-made evening at The Box in due course.
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Comments
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I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
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Seriously, they went to a titty bar?!?! What year is this?!
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DJ play my song ….play it all night long …we are sailing, we are sailing, across the sea
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...and the band played on.
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Was it too late for the Plexus invites to go out?? We want champers too
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The women in g-strings must be lies. I demand proof. Photographic proof...
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Solicitors and barristers don’t lose out
the clients pay and the money is paid across
get your facts right ROF!!
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@9:34 - If clients paid out why didn’t the barristers get paid?
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I am deeply offended that I, a gay, was not invited to this glorious g-stringed throwback to the golden days of... oh, I don't know, about 1986?
It would have been utterly mortifying in the moment, but nevertheless I'd have been dining out on the story of the most cringe work social in living memory for years to come!
Also, as noted above, we want free champagne as much as anyone else does, if not more so following recent events...
58
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Is Glasgow really an international office?
50
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"Seriously, they went to a titty bar?!?! What year is this?!"
Any year in which the fashionable style of London's burghers does not involve stovepipe hats, crinolines or tonsures.
Please feel free to board the Mayflower at any time you like. Puritanical regimes are available elsewhere if that is your preference.
If you need help setting your compass I hear that Afghanistan is now a country transformed in which your views on womens freedoms and public displays of sexuality may fit in quite well.
49
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"Is Glasgow really an international office?"
Is it even worthy of being called an 'office', really?
Perhaps 'distant hut' would be more accurate in future writeups.
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When Plexus employees see the pithy, wordy, and poetic responses provided by their new Ince colleagues 👀…it is a new world! Please replace the phrase titty bar with bosom bar going forwards
82
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Burt and Ernie are going to wish they never left. This sounds right up their street!
99
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Will the ex-Plexus staff who opted out of TUPE transfer to Axiom stop gossiping and move on!!!
90
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The ex-Plexus partner over there! Yes, you!
Now I have your attention, you opted out of the TUPE transfer to Axiom and moved to firm x.
You need to stop gossiping to the market and get on with your live!
97
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Shame on you, gossipy ex-Plexus partners, shame on you!
(Oh wait, I am an ex-Plexus partner and am the biggest gossip in the market!)
49
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Submarine trips to view the remains coming soon
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where staff enjoyed swigging champagne, “women in G-strings”
Can we be sure that these women really were wearing G-strings?
Is it not at least a reasonable doubt that they could have been wearing close fitting body suits in flesh-coloured hues which then had an approximation of a g-string printed on top, in the same way as one sometimes sees on novelty kitchen aprons, thereby duping innocent middle-aged men into looking at them with the express intent of thereafter falsely accusing them of lechery so as to ruin their previously glorious careers?
Is there any evidence that was not what happened here?
54
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Gawd, and I really thought Ince couldn't sink any lower....
36
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(Re)start as you mean to go on!
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@Arthur Porter
One never gossips!
(One loves gossiping, gossips constantly and you do too!).
43
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Believe me Anonymous, it can, O yes indeed it can.
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Glasgow is in fact an "orifice".
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Ince, so bust and disgraced so many times over they have renamed themselves four or five times in the last four years…….. supposedly they still think there is value in the brand.
🙄
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Can I come to the party?! Lock up the women!
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@8.37 - who says 'titty bar' these days?
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@9.07 - pretty sure you can just google them!
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Any lawyer (male lawyers only of course) in the vicinity of any woman in g-strings...g-strings, sex, faints, applies smelling salts, continues...
Any lawyer (male lawyers only of course) in the vicinity of any woman in g-strings brings the profession into disrepute and should immediately be struck off. Especially if its their wife. Its ok if female lawyers do it though because they'd only do it if they were being controlled.
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@21.23 - how did the waitress disgrace Ince?
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It is interesting to note that the Partners who stayed at Plexus, who then moved across the Axiom Ince & Co and are still working alongside many hundreds of their old Plexus colleagues, are still getting abuse on ROF from the few who legged it to line their own pockets or to simply give up. Says more about you than them.
For the love of god, move on!!
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I wish people knew the truth.
Plexus’ old FSMs, whether they left or stayed until the end or whatever, are a good bunch with lots in common. We stay in touch and still pull together whatever firm we are with now. Lots to do on a United front 😉
The faceless stirrers would like the world to see another version of the truth, but it generally doesn’t exist.
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The truth exists in the administrators report. The suggestion of senior people now pulling together after the event is laughable. It’s like the legal equivalent of Wagatha Christie and who is lying the least. Generally the truth does exist. It’s plain for everyone to see that no one bothered to do anything at the time allowing a fake administration to be engineered so everyone could do a runner
36
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party will soon be over
32
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Call for Private Fraser.. "We're doomed, I tell you; doomed".
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Neither Donald Brown (Ince CEO) nor Jennette Newman (Ince Managing Partner) appear to be available to face the music of the impact of the latest SRA action.
The SRA register has been updated to show Newman as unaffiliated to Axiom Ince, or whatever they are calling themselves for their final few days:
https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/register/person/?sraNumber=166474
Remember her...
https://www.rollonfriday.com/feature-content/ince-co-how-not-engage-press
Brown, not being a solicitor.. (how could he be, he'd have to pass an ethics test) can't be disciplined by the SRA (apparently) but perhaps the FCA might be interested, or the Met.
Both have had their profiles taken down from the firm's website.
Where are they?
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Blimey this aged well
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