Sheffield law firm goes into administration in 'challenging time' for legal market

Unity Law Limited, the Sheffield-based law firm, has gone into administration after experiencing financial issues.

Gareth Harris and Keith Marshall of RSM Restructuring Advisory LLP were appointed Joint Administrators of the company on 2nd June, 2017.

Unity Law Limited specialised in noise induced hearing loss claims and equality cases, including the First Group PLC Vs Paulley case held in the Supreme Court.

Despite significant investment, the company suffered financially due to the changes in the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO), implemented in 2013.

Unity Law Limited tried to address the consequences of these changes over the last few years.

As well as expanding the business, management also tried to tackle these changes by disposing of the business to third parties. However these actions did not succeed and cases have now been transferred to CFA Law Limited (trading as Fry Law).

Gareth Harris, RSM restructuring advisory partner, joint administrator and head of the RSM Professional Services team in Leeds, said: “It is very disappointing that despite extensive effort to rescue Unity Law in a solvent manner, this did not prove possible, but it is clear that the longer term impact of LASPO is still being felt in the legal market and it remains a challenging time for law firms.

“We have however, managed to protect client’s interests by transferring existing cases to CFA law Ltd.”