Plexus, now with free spoons - genuine, silver-plated cutlery.
[UPDATE 30/6/23: ROF has it on good authority that Axiom DWFM, the firm which bought Ince out of administration, is well on the way to achieving the same with Plexus.]
Plexus, the defendant injury firm which collapsed into administration, has filed another notice to appoint an administrator, having been warned that if a sale isn’t achieved its partners risk having their practice certificates suspended.
The firm was plunged into crisis when its private equity backer, Origin Equity, reneged on a promise to provide £5m in emergency funding, citing Plexus’s failure to meet certain payment conditions.
Those caveats were absent from the firm’s jolly announcement that funding was in the bag, which it wasn't, and that everything was going to be fine, which it wasn't. Within days it went into administration.
Now the race is on to find a buyer, or buyers if the firm is broken up in a firesale. RollOnFriday understands several firms have been circling, including two PI firms, Carpenters Group and Gallagher Bassett, and Davies & Partners.
They haven't been moving speedily enough, however, and the firm has now filed a second notice of intention to appoint an administrator in order to buy itself more time before having to go into liquidation.
A source close to management told ROF that Plexus had received multiple expressions of interest and was hopeful of concluding the process soon.
Plexus partners will be particularly motivated sellers following the advice they’ve received from Pinsent Masons that the SRA will intervene if a sale doesn’t happen soon, said a source.
The briefing warned that if the regulator is forced to step in, Plexus’s fixed share members, partners, and SRA-approved managers face the suspension of their practice certificates and individual liability for a five figure sum on account of the SRA’s potential costs associated with an intervention.
Lots of partners won't have to worry about that doomsday scenario because they have already legged it. According to filings at Companies House, the firm has lost nine members already this year, while eight departed last year.
The lateral partner attrition rate also tells a story. At least 12 lateral hires who joined the firm after 2018 as members left within three years, with some coming and going within a matter of months.
A new buyer combing through Plexus’s messy accounts will have plenty of questions, one of which may concern the financial arrangements made to tempt laterals into the business. According to a source, “They have been throwing money around like madmen”, and even gave one partner a £200k “loan” to join the firm. It didn't work out and the individual left Plexus, said the source. Plexus declined to comment on partner departures or its arrangements with lateral hires.
Comments
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This is never ending and as an employee still “working” there, they need to hurry up and let us know what is happening.
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Inaccurate reporting again ROF. Don’t rely on these “sources”.
69
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Who is the source close to management ?
Gavin and Stacey have been missing for weeks
Is there an interim management board ?
68
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Have the staff been paid? The only really relevant issue.
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"as an employee still “working” there"
Why?!
The writing is on the wall.
And the floor. And the ceiling. And all of the doors throughout the interior and exterior parts of the building.
Get out now.
Any floating object is preferable to the sinking vessel on which you are currently aboard. Save yourself.
80
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Yes. All employees have been paid.
Some better times are ahead. Thank goodness.
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@Terry, not June 9.36am
Yes, which was a very pleasant surprise! In the full amount due, as well! Most unexpected, to be perfectly honest with you. And what a relief - how else could I afford to smash 10 pints of a Friday in the hope I'll forget I still work here?! We're all, already, very anxious about next month, mind you...
@anonymous 9.41am
I assure you, we're trying. Got any jobs going? My mortgage repayments are going up by 49% per month in December. Thanks, Liz!
Any legal boffins want to speculate on what would actually happen if the partner's were no longer able to practice? My prediction is they'll just ask the rest of us to do all of their work as well as our own?
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The Aviator 09:18
"Gavin and Stacey have been missing for weeks"
They've been missing in any meaningful way since they arrived in 2019.
69
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Who is voting down payroll geek confirming everyone got paid in full. Seriously wtf is wrong with people?
56
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It would be better for the non-partners just to leave and apply to a competitor. There is no point following the same irresponsible people around the country. If you follow the CVs a number of these jokers will have come from failed firms already like Halliwells. Halliwells to Plexus to another terrible outfit is not going to do you any good - a clean break from the toxic past is what is needed. These junior partners have no talent whatsoever and are just trailing the same rancid clients from pillar to post.
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To Anon @ 11.28
Perhaps it’s 👎🏻 to the comment “Some better times are ahead.”
I applaud the optimism but it’s not a great outlook.
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The Manchester market is awash with CVs from BLM people and now Plexus. Juniors will be ok. The more senior lot may struggle esp. that lot with the wafer thin egos and the terrible track record of just being foul and overbearing towards colleagues.
47
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"The Manchester market is awash with CVs from BLM people"
That's their problem right there, it's just not very cool anymore.
Could they not rebrand as trans rights activists or something a bit more current?
85
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Olivia Roberts will not care one bit about this or what happens with Plexus or the people that work there. She’ll be swimming in daddy’s money somewhere in the south of France. So much for being ‘open and upfront’.
51
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Who is going to buy this nugget of poo?
All the decent people have moved with their clients, rancid or otherwise.
“Dear prospective buyers, there’s no clients left”.
75
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You can run and hide but those running the forthcoming group litigation against you will find you in the end…
69
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I’m surprised that Clown & Co aren’t in the running to snap them up. They love an asset strip of an insolvent business. Their run on BLM has already netted them £40m and that is before they even contemplate paying off the EP’s
46
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@daddys money
Is Olivia Roberts of Origin Equity related to Tim Roberts former CEO of Plexus Law?
64
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I went through the last administration. This looks much worse. Then plexus as a brand had support in the market. Now key players have already been pushed out. Total mismanagement. V sad
46
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My Monopoly skills suggest I ought to run the firm.
I reckon I could be talked into taking on the beleaguered company for the right price – no, not from me, from them.
49
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This is Ince & Co no. 2 in the making.
Shares in Plexus traded at 308p in 2014, currently worth 2.9p. It looks even worse on a graph:
https://www.londonstockexchange.com/stock/POS/plexus-holdings-plc/company-page
My prediction - RBG fails to pay staff, tax and bills, they try to put it into administration but the business cannot be salvaged and it goes into insolvent liquidation and is delisted. Just a hunch.
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This won’t be very popular with some people, but as a junior person at Plexus I am very grateful to the partners who have shown loyalty to all of us still employed and who, by the sounds of it, will have a job going forward too.
I don’t criticise those Partners who have left. That’s a decision they are entitled to make. But I am glad some stuck around to ensure there is something of value that can be bought to give us all another chance. Thank you.
46
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@doomed - thats a different Plexus. Plexus Law has never floated on the SE
@thank you - thats clearly written by one of the Partners who stayed. And you can be very confident they did so to save everyone’s jobs and definitely not because they couldnt find another firm to take them
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Doomed at 19:37
Do your research. Plexus Holdings plc are not Plexus Law. And where do RBG come into any of this?
58
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Ex-BLM person here. BLM could very easily have ended up in this same position if it hadn't merged. Lots of BLM people complaining Clydes isn't treating them well but they should appreciate that it could've been a very different situation.
Feel for the Plexus staff, especially the junior ones. Best to make a move if you can.
45
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When I first worked in this sector 30 years ago there were hundreds of firms on panels and we were paid a decent amount for what we did. The insurance sector have squeezed firms until their pips squeak. BLM Plexus other firms who abandoned insurance work. The sector is culpable. I got out of this as a practitioner years ago and my advice to any young lawyers is change discipline! Lots of people do. Insurance is not a good place to be as a lawyer
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"Ex-BLM person here"
Same. I saw all the Paris and Marseille stuff and it turned me right off.
I'm really into veganism now.
45
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20 partners left Plexus in the last 18 months. To put that in context, there are only 23 left.
33
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Naming an injury firm after body parts is never a good idea.
48
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You have to be seriously daft to:
1. Think you have a future at Plexus-there are 'no better times ahead.'
2. Stay doing injury work for insurers. Firstly, the pay is awful. You will reach a very low ceiling of pay very quickly in your career...no point bleating about your employer being tight on salary increases. Secondly, three big insurance firms have effectively gone under...who is next? How many insurance law firms can you keep moving to?
Plexus fee earners you need to take control of your OWN careers...no one else will do it for you.
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Payroll geek 30 June 23 10:05
Everyone did not get paid. Those staff who were on garden leave didn’t get paid. They have been told they won’t get paid because plexus are in administration
absolute shy sters
24
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Wrong! Again
Plexus is not in administration. That’s a fact, as I type. They were not paid because of the law around a preference as against creditors. Get your facts straight and preferably know the law.
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Wow that’s horrendous. Can they even do that ? Best off out of there. Hope you move onto greener pastures.
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To any trainees or future trainees if SRA intervene they will find you an alternative training contact. So wait it out.
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Were told yesterday it's definitely axiom FM.. hopefully insurer clients don't leg it
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It isn’t can they do that, they have to do that.
They need to maximise creditor value under fiduciary duties, paying staff working to generate wip/debtors/cash does so. Paying those on gardening leave doesn’t benefit creditors as they are not producing anything of value to creditors.
Awful for anyone affected but it is the right answer. Anyone affected would be able to claim unpaid wages from hmrc post admin.