Tag Archives: law firms

Some reflections on the collapse of PM Law

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The PM Law group of firms collapsed in February 2026.  In total, almost £40 million of client money had been removed or was missing; tens of thousands of clients were left stranded in the middle of house moves, claims for personal injuries, dealing with the estates of loved ones, and so on; and about 600 staff lost their jobs (quite literally overnight).  This was a tragedy with huge human and financial costs that we must not lose sight of.

It’s perhaps important to say that this collapse was not caused by the regulator; and also that the great majority of solicitors are competent and ethical, working hard to comply with their regulatory obligations.  Equally, no regulator or system of regulation can achieve a zero-risk outcome where nothing bad ever happens; and whatever has gone wrong here was not because of a lack among the regulator’s staff of individual diligence or willingness to act.  But …

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“Are you proud to be a lawyer?”

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Once, this was not a difficult question to answer.  When I became a barrister in 1977, my answer would have been immediate and unequivocal.  Like many of my generation, I was the first in the family to go to university; and then to gain a legal qualification was a matter of great pride.

But, almost 50 years on, things are different.  Lawyers are no longer held in such high esteem (either collectively or, often, individually); media stories abound of lawyers who are said to have ‘crossed an ethical line’; and the public brush of concern tars everyone.  I find the question more difficult (and, to some degree, uncomfortable) these days.

So is current sentiment just an enhanced reflection of longstanding animosity towards the profession collectively?  Is this tide irreversible?  I’d like to think so, but it may not be easy. Continue reading →

Market structure: continuing growth in the solicitors’ profession

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The Law Society of England & Wales recently published its Annual Statistics Report for 2021, its compendium and analysis of useful numbers about the trends in the solicitors profession.  (In fact, it is the second report published this year, the 2020 report having been delayed by the Covid pandemic.)

I have followed these reports for many years, charting the ups and downs in the trends.  I was therefore brought up short by this comment by the President of the Law Society, as reported in Legal Futures: “The decline in the number of firms also highlights the need for widespread investment in our justice system including legal aid rates to ensure lawyers are there when needed.”

The reason that I. Stephanie Boyce’s comment grabbed my attention is that the two elements of the sentence (decline and need for public investment) do not on the face of it appear to be supported by the data or even connected.  Some further digging into the report and other sources was called for. Continue reading →