Cobbetts LLP has been placed in administration, confirming its acquisition by fellow law firm DWF, minus the finance litigation and debt recovery teams.
The 491 staff and 72 partners at Cobbetts, will move from offices in Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham and London to existing DWF offices within the next few weeks.
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However, Andrew Bennett and the finance litigation team at Cobbetts will not join DWF, owing to commercial conflict arising from the recent merger of DWF with indemnity practice Fishburns LLP. The team will instead join Leeds-based legal services provider Walker Morris.
As of 1 February, the finance litigation team of Chafes was moved, along with Chafes’ portfolio of lender clients, to DWF.
Incasso, the debt recovery team at Cobbetts, will also not be joining DWF although the short-term management of client affairs will be handled by DWF.
Cobbetts had previously obtained an interim statutory moratorium to enable the sale of its business and assets to DWF. The appointment of KPMG as administrators confirms that sale.
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By GlobalDataFollowing the deals with Chafes, Cobbetts and Fishburns, DWF now employs more than 2,500 people across 13 offices in the UK and Ireland.
richard.brown@timetric.com
