Liverpool based law firm Hill Dickinson last night swooped on the assets of regional rival Halliwells as it crashed into administration.

Hill Dickinson has paid an undisclosed sum to acquire Halliwells’ Liverpool office and part of its Sheffield operation, in a deal that will add £10m to the firm’s annual fee income.

Also last night, Halliwells appointed BDO as administrators. It brought to an end almost four weeks of anguish at the Manchester-based firm, which started when it lodged a notice of intent to appoint administrators on June 26.

Partners at the firm cited high property costs and the economic downturn as reasons behind its downfall.

Now more than 100 of its staff will transfer to Hill Dickinson.

That includes 89 people moving from Halliwells’ Plaza offices to Hill Dickinson’s nearby St Paul’s Square base, and another 36 Sheffield staff, who mostly work in commercial law. The Liverpool staff were surreptitiously moved to Hill Dickinson over the weekend.

Hill Dickinson’s managing partner, Peter Jackson, revealed his firm has been in talks with Halliwells since April and that his partnership voted to go ahead with the deal two weeks ago.

But, just hours after the administration order was accepted by the courts yesterday afternoon, Hill Dickinson signed the deal to take on a portion of Halliwells’ assets. Deals were also anticipated for Birmingham law firm HBJ Gateley Wareing to take on the commercial part of Halliwells’ Manchester office and for Barlow, Lyde and Gilbert to acquire the insurance practice in Manchester.

It had been thought that Hill Dickinson was poised to take over the firm wholesale.

But, explaining why that deal had not materialised, Mr Jackson told LDP Business: “It became very clear that Halliwells couldn’t actually deliver the whole lot – that’s no criticism of anyone.

“It was an inevitability that clients make decisions about where they wanted their work to go.

“We took the view that it was proper for us to focus on the bits that we knew we wanted, which would add to our business, which would enhance our business, so we focused on Liverpool.

“We wanted Liverpool right from the start. It was our prime objective. If nothing else happened and we got Liverpool, it was a success.

“In Sheffield, the culture there is very akin to the culture we have in our office, and, strategically, they are a private healthcare practice, which dovetails very well with our own public healthcare practice.”

Mr Jackson also said there would be no job losses as a result of his firm’s deal. Halliwells’ managing partner Jonathan Brown will also join Hill Dickinson. He will lead the former Halliwells lawyers and is set to go back to fee earning in the corporate field.

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A ‘PERFECT storm’ has plunged Liverpool Chamber of Commerce into annual losses of more than £700,000

Chief executive Jack Stopforth explained at the annual meeting that the timing of certain contracts meant the business lobby group is unable to benefit until the next financial year.

He said it had been caught in the eye of a “perfect storm” in the second half caused by late starts on key contracts in international trade and workforce development and with revenues from sales in the chamber’s Skillworks programme not being allowable until financial year 2010/11, when the training begins.

Mr Stopforth said: “Since we cannot account for the revenue until training programmes have been successfully delivered, the benefits will accrue in Q1 and Q2 2010, even though the sales were concluded in 2009/10. This is revenue deferred rather than revenue lost.”

The chamber reported a loss after tax of £308,000, including restructuring and redundancy costs, and its two wholly-owned training businesses, Trident Training and Mersey Chamber Training, recorded a further combined loss of £409,000.

However, Mr Stopforth added: “Losses were covered by reserves accumulated over the past four successful trading years and the chamber’s cash flow and liquidity were extremely strong throughout the year.

“Those factors, plus a strong order book and business plan for 2010/11, encourage us to believe we can recover the position during 2010/11.”

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