SRA closes Blakemores and Atteys

The SRA confirmed today that it has closed Yorkshire firm Atteys, only a day after announcing that it had intervened in another medium-sized firm, West Midlands personal injury specialists Blakemores, which set up the Lawyers2you franchise.

Interim chief operating officer of Atteys, Martin Feeney, said last month that the practice had given notice of intention to appoint administrators and more than 60 firms were interested in buying part of it.

A spokesman for the SRA said it was necessary to intervene in Atteys, which had offices in Doncaster, Barnsley, Wath-upon-Dearne, Sheffield and Retford to protect the interests of clients.

John Owen of Gordons has been appointed agent to deal with all matters currently dealt with by the Yorkshire practice.

Atteys was a Lexcel-accredited firm, a member of the Law Society’s CQS scheme and had a history going back 230 years.

Yesterday the SRA confirmed that it had intervened in Blakemores, based in Birmingham and Leamington Spa, which had around 250 staff. Along with personal injury, it covered conveyancing, family and immigration work.

A spokesman said Neal Boland of Stephensons had been appointed agent to deal with all matters currently held by Blakemores.

Blakemores, which had around 250 staff, was one of the first LDPs. Only last year Guy Barnett, the managing partner, said there were plans to extend Lawyers2you into Europe and North America.

The firm became an LDP in May 2009, when the conveyancing manager, finance manager, practice manager and HR manager became partners.

In an interview with Solicitors Journal later that year, Barnett said making the non-lawyers partners had brought new capital into the firm during a time of recession.

He warned that the legal profession would face a “massive force” when the first ABSs arrived.

“We’ve got this situation where new entrants can come into the market – like Asda, the AA, Virgin etc. – which are substantially funded, can inject enormous amounts of capital into the business, have long-term objectives and are looking for reinvestment.

“They have management teams properly educated in what consumerism means. How will legally managed businesses react to that competition?”

Barnett said many solicitors would not be able to compete with “the injection of new funding that will come from a variety of sources”.