Escaping liability in professional partnership insolvencies

1 July 2010

“… It is possible inadvertently to throw away these defences in the course of the process leading up to administration, a PVA and/or IVAs …” This article describes the run-up to a professional partnership insolvency, and the choices faced by the partners who control the partnership. It then goes on to identify particular issues faced [...]

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Settling partnership disputes through mediation

7 May 2010

“… after a few hours of tight-lipped civility, one or other of the parties … cannot stop himself telling the other party what he really thinks …” There are a number of factors which distinguish partnership disputes from other types of commercial dispute.  In consequence, different methods are sometimes required to achieve settlement. In this [...]

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What happens after a dissolution notice is served?

23 April 2010

“… the income of the firm may well diminish and/or partners may not account fully or at all for accrued WIP …” Unless there is an express agreement between partners permitting retirement, no partner can retire from a partnership at will.  The only way to bring about termination of the relationship is for one or [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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