Dissolution, dissolution, dissolution

22 April 2010

“… the conviction that a partnership will last forever in sickness or in health, for richer or poorer, may fade quickly …” As is well known, under certain Middle Eastern legal systems a husband can divorce his wife by uttering, “I divorce thee” three times in her presence. In contrast, in a partnership at will [...]

0 comments Read the full article →

Capital retention woes

20 April 2010

“… Possession being nine-tenths of the law, a partner/member in this position may have to sue to recover his capital …” A worrying trend has been emerging.  It has become much more common for partners and LLP members leaving professional practices to have difficulty extracting their capital. Typically professional practice governing agreements provide for capital [...]

0 comments Read the full article →

Alternative Business Structures – Big Bang or damp squib?

19 March 2010

“… how beneficial will consolidation into fewer, larger entities be for consumers? …” A great deal of time and money have been spent preparing for the arrival of Alternative Business Structures (ABS) in October 2011.  The 2004 Clementi Report led the Ministry of Justice to formulate and pilot the Legal Services Bill through Parliament, and it passed into [...]

0 comments Read the full article →

LLP membership trumps employment rights?

20 February 2010

“… At the outset he has been lulled into a false sense of security, and may consider himself to be the victim of a scam …” Lawyers and accountants have been very creative in their use of LLPs.  But sometimes our good work may be hijacked and applied creatively by others for purposes that we [...]

0 comments Read the full article →

Senior partner-itis

30 January 2010

“… Typically the senior partner becomes complacent about the fabulous hand of cards that life has dealt him and starts to presume that he can do no wrong …” It may come as no surprise that amongst professional practices that have no provision in their partnership deed for regular senior partner elections, an unusually high proportion [...]

0 comments Read the full article →

Rogue partners

28 December 2009

“… The majority of professional practices are woefully deficient in detecting the “virus” at the point of introducing it/him into the practice …” Last month I chaired an Association of Partnership Practitioners workshop on “Rogue Partners”. What was striking was how many members attended (well over 100 leading partnership practitioners) and the intense interest in the [...]

0 comments Read the full article →

The 10 most important partnership or LLP deed clauses

24 September 2009

“… Recessions bring out the worst in people …” (First published in the Law Society Gazette on 24 September 2009) A recession has a way of exposing weaknesses in legal drafting. As practices try to respond to the economic climate, management teams consult the fine print of their partnership deed or LLP members’ agreement, and [...]

0 comments Read the full article →

Who is liable for an LLP legal practice run-off premium?

9 August 2009

“… the number of insureds under a practice’s professional indemnity insurance can easily double every fifteen or so years …” (First published in the Law Society Gazette on 20 August 2009) Last year a letter dropped though the door of numerous former employees of Merricks LLP, putting them on notice that if certain of the [...]

0 comments Read the full article →

Sale of an insolvent law firm

2 August 2007

“… An intending purchaser who is aware of the firm’s difficulties should not purchase the firm from the partners, even if no winding-up or bankruptcy petitions have been presented …” (First published in the Law Society Gazette on 2 August 2007) Partners of an insolvent law firm cannot continue to practice indefinitely.  Leaving aside that [...]

0 comments Read the full article →

Inadvertent discharge of partnership liabilities

21 June 2007

“… By the time creditors are negotiating terms with partners the firm may have ceased to trade, and the partners may have gone their separate ways …” (This article was first published in the Law Society Gazette on 21 June 2007) When a firm fails, major creditors are often prepared to agree to limit each [...]

0 comments Read the full article →

Next Entries →