Century-old Sheffield law firm Ashton Morton Slack LLP has collapsed into administration

Century-old Sheffield law firm Ashton Morton Slack LLP has collapsed into administration, becoming the latest regional casualty of the economic downturn. Administrators from BDO, appointed by the limited liability partnership’s members last Friday, blamed the firm’s demise on cashflow problems arising from declining volumes of work and increasing overheads.




AMS, a one-office firm, has five equity partners and 67 staff, up to half of whom now face redundancy. Thirty-two jobs have been saved after other law firms, which have yet to be identified, agreed to take on AMS’s clients.



AMS’s services include personal injury, serious fraud, commercial/residential property, family matters, employment law and asset management.



Pending consent on a client-by-client basis, BDO has helped AMS to broker agreements whereby all clients, and their matters, have moved to alternative solicitors so ‘ensuring that their interests are fully protected’.



One firm will complete the family, property and commercial files, a second firm will complete the serious fraud files, and the three remaining firms will complete the personal injury files. The firms involved have asked not to be identified.



Thirty-two jobs have been secured and 11 employees will remain at AMS in the short term to help with the administration. The remaining staff will be made redundant.



The firm’s one office in Sheffield’s North Church Street will be sold to maximise return for its creditors, as will other physical assets belonging to the firm.



Graham Newton, BDO business restructuring partner, said: ‘A combination of a declining volume of business and increased overheads created a cashflow problem which was ultimately unsustainable for Ashton Morton Slack LLP. Our priority is to protect the interests of the firm’s clients by ensuring that they continue to receive appropriate legal representation with minimal disruption, and to maximise asset realisations for the benefit of creditors.’



In its latest set of accounts, for the year to April 30 2009, AMS LLP reported pre-tax profits before member remuneration of £771,150, down from £1.26m in 2008. Total bank loans and overdrafts falling due within one year stood at £2.69m at 30 April 2009, while staff numbers appear to have fallen by more than half since, from 143.