"Entry team to PM House, we are moving in."
A law firm group which employs over 600 people suddenly shuttered its offices this week, leaving clients and staff in the lurch and forcing the SRA to intervene to close it down.
Sheffield-headquartered PM Law Group, which was formed in 1990, had a raft of high street firms* under its umbrella, but has closed them all without any notice - sticking hastily-written notes on their doors just before they locked them:
Notes on the doors of various Butterworths Solicitors offices in Cumbria (Images from Penrith Town News, BBC and ITV)
Clients try to decipher what the Cumbrian note on the door means (how it might have looked).
The affected firms specialised in areas such as conveyancing and PI and the closures came as a nasty shock to clients in the middle of buying and selling a house, or pursuing compensation.
The SRA said in a statement that it was "alerted to the unexpected closure of PM Law Ltd and associated firms on Monday", and launched an immediate investigation. As a result, it decided on Wednesday to intervene into the group of firms.
"We understand that this is concerning and distressing news for all involved, not least those that had on-going matters with the firm," the SRA said in a statement.
The interventions mean the SRA has taken possession of all documents and money (such as there is...) held by the closed firms, and an SRA-appointed agent will deal with all matters.
Sarah Rapson, Chief Executive of the SRA, said the regulator was now "working quickly to gather all the relevant information and provide answers to those that have raised important questions about their on-going matters with the firm".
She said: "I fully sympathise with the clients of the firm" and "also recognise this is a difficult time for the employees of the firm who have sadly lost their jobs this week."
Some staff took to LinkedIn to express their anger. One "utterly heartbroken" trainee posted: "Myself [sic] and my wonderful colleagues, who have put so much into the business, simply left in tears with no answers to any of our many questions. I can only hope for a swift and serious investigation to provide us with answers and accountability we and our client deserve."
Applicants who applied to PM Law's job ad, posted just a few weeks ago, may have to wait a while to hear back...
The last financial statement filed at Companies House showed that, as at 31 October 2024, PM Law Limited owed just over £3.1m to creditors, and had debtors of around £6.2m, with net assets of over £3.1m.
Details of the group's collapse are unknown at this stage, although it would need to throw in some lavish parties, dawn raids and fraud charges to match the drama of Axiom Ince's downfall.
RollOnFriday asked the SRA if it had received any reports about any of the firms before this week and if any of them were already under investigation. A spokesperson said: "We don’t confirm or deny if we’ve had complaints about a firm or if any investigation was under way."
* Impacted firms and additional trading names, as listed by the SRA:
Firm names
PM Law Limited, Proddow Mackay Limited, 3M Law Limited, Linkfield Claims Service Limited, Butterworths Solicitors LLP, Autonet Law LLP, Proddow Mackay (Conveyancing) Limited , WB Pennine Solicitors LLP, Proddow Mackay Solicitors LLP, PM Law (Specialist Claims) Limited, PM Property Lawyers Limited.
Additional trading names
Abraxas Law, All Your Accidents, Angela Viney Conveyancing Services, Complete Property Deal, Barrett and Co Solicitors, BB Conveyancing, Bridgeview law, DAzur Law, Deborah J Hoban Law, GN Law, Gaddes Noble Law, Gaddes Noble Property Lawyers, Gaines & Wilkinson Ltd, HGA Conveyancing, John M Lewis & Co Ltd, JK Advokatas, KB Property Law, Lexelle Assist, Litkraft Solicitors, Litkraft Conveyancing, Lloyd Green Solicitors, OneDome Conveyancing, PLA Law Limited, PM Legal Services, PM Property Lawyers, Proddowmackay.law, Proddow Mackay (Conveyancing) Limited, Valerie Holmes Law, Valerie Holmes Property Lawyer, Wilsons Solicitors
Comments
48
11
Looks like yet another very serious SRA regulatory failure.
Does the regularity issue come after their regulatory failure or as a result of it, by the way?
🤔
55
9
Hmm. Due to regularity matters, I am reading this article whilst having a shit.
22
9
I’m staggered. I thought they just let the naughty lawyers continue until they chose to retire, like seems to be happening with multi millionaires who represented the Post Office.
29
8
SRA spelunking team donning headlamps and harnesses to descend deep into the yawningly empty caverns of the PM Law client account as we speak, no doubt.
Sad that their Stable Door Repair Corps won't be available till monday to come inspect the damage, but I hear that the Bolted Horse Retrieval Unit can sometimes be coaxed out of bed on the weekend to send the odd email.
16
13
Please don't use the Americanism "shuttered"
17
8
According to the Law Society Gazette the Group formally told the SRA it was intending to close - if this is true, why did the SRA make the statements it did on Monday and Wednesday in which it gave the impression the collapse came as a shock, and why did it leave it for three days before intervening?
24
10
The SRA once again caught asleep at the wheel when they should be preventing what these accumulator firms are doing (acquiring loads of firms quickly, extracting value and leaving debts to be borne by the firms). We seriously need to disband the SRA because there is no way they should be allowed to use this collapse as justification for disproporationately increasing practicing fees AGAIN
36
9
As someone who worked in the Metamorph group whilst in imploded, I never thought I'd see any owners of law firms as incompetent and brazenly disinterested in regulations and basic decency as Stockdale & Goldhill. However, I think this situation in many ways is even worse.
Imagine the sheer logistics of closing 20+ offices with immediate effect overnight, and what that entailed:
1) The owners getting together and collectively deciding that this was their best plan of action. No dissenters. 'Yep, sounds good to me. Stick signs on the office doors and run. When does our plane leave?'
2) Presumably making phone calls to some poor sap(s) and telling them that, not only are they sacked with immediate effect and no prospect of a pay-out, but also they were to sneak into the offices on a Sunday night sticking signs up on the doors (who on Earth would agree to do that, by the way?! CCTV footage may be interesting, especially if it was done by any regulated individuals...)
3) As a final insult, blatantly lying on the signs about the reason for closure. This was not a 'Regulatory Matter' as the SRA and Law Society were (characteristically) completely in the dark and had no intention of taking any action against the group.
This all, sadly, once again illustrates the risks inherent in allowing law firms/groups to be owned primarily by non-lawyers (usually 'accountants' looking for a quick payday before retirement and their shady 'investor' mates). They have literally no interest in, or knowledge of, what it takes to run a law firm and no fear of being struck off or sanctioned by the regulators because they are not personally qualified or regulated in the first place.
If we continue to make 'Cut Ties and Run' an option for legal owners without real consequences, these chancers will continue to take it.
17
10
@12:16 - 'uninterested', not 'disinterested'.
12
7
SRA = serious running aberration?
14
7
Meanwhile what happens to the clients in the midst of various transactions, many of them time-sensitive?
“Too bad you’ve completed the sale of your house but aren’t due to close on the new one till next week. We’ve appointed one person to manage. They might get up to speed in time but I wouldn’t count on it.”
Your regulator doesn’t seem very interested in protecting clients.
10
5
Had the unfortunate experience of working for these morons 7 years ago. The absolute worst 'law firm' I ever had the misfortune to work for. 3 months felt like 10 years. Absolute clown show 🤡🤡🤡
10
10
09:53hrs 7 February
Surely SRA = 💩show Run by Amateurs?!
Or maybe that should be Assholes?
6
6
Maybe Clyde & Co should rescue them.