A seventh firm owned by collapsed consolidator Metamorph Group has been shut down by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the regulator confirmed today.
The SRA said it had intervened into the Buckinghamshire practice Brown Solicitors Ltd to protect the interests of clients or former clients.
As with the six interventions announced before Christmas, Bradford firm Gordons LLP has been appointed as the intervening agent. Just two firms owned by Metamorph are still trading: Beeton Edwards and Parrott & Coales.
Browns, which specialised in residential conveyancing, commercial property and wills and probate, was added to the Metamorph roster in March 2021. Group executive chairman Tony Stockdale said at the time that the acquisition was part of the goal ‘to become one of the leading law firms in England focused on private client and SME work’. Browns, he added, had a ‘solid local reputation’ in its specialist areas.
According to Companies House records, solicitors Justin Bradley and David Hodges, who had been directors of Browns since 2013, both resigned last month, although they had both ceased to have significant control of the business after the acquisition. Hodges had been with the firm for almost 25 years and was manager of its Aylesbury office. Bradley had also joined in 1998 and was the head of the residential conveyancing team in the Wycombe office.
Like other firms in the Metamorph stable, Browns was yet to publish accounts that had been due by 30 June 2022. The most recently available accounts, for the year ended 31 December 2019, show the firm had net assets of £587,000 including £531,000 in cash reserves. The firm had employed 37 at the time.
Beginning in mid-December, the SRA has now closed down seven firms in total, including Knowles Benning, Knight Polson, MLL Ltd, BPL Solicitors, Beaumont ABS and Atray. On each occasion the regulator has cited client protection as the cause. Before the latest closure, the SRA had collected nearly 60,000 boxes of files related to closed matters and amassed electronic files taking up 3 terabytes of storage.
Gordons set up a dedicated web page for anyone looking for information the closed firms. A total of 14 offices have now been visited as part of the process.
