A series of departures by senior employees led to the collapse of a US law firm’s London office, it has been revealed.
Joint administrators from insolvency company Quantuma were brought in last week to handle the affairs of Armstrong Teasdale, the UK-based operation of the US law firm of the same name based in St. Louis, Missouri.
Only a couple of employees have been retained by the administrators to help with the administration process, Quantuma revealed, after a “series of well-documented senior team departures severely compromised the UK firm’s ability to trade profitably”.
This led to the firm having to “compliantly wind down the UK operations”, according to Quantuma managing director Sean Bucknall.
Armstrong Teasdale expanded to its first office outside the US in 2021 through the acquisition of London firm Kerman Legal Services.
However, in August this year the City of London Law Society said it had been approached for help in placing 10 trainees and future trainees who were in or had gained placements in the firm.
Staff were informed last month they were being made redundant, according to the Law Society Gazette.
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In July, the firm announced it would close its London, Dublin, Boston and Salt Lake City Offices. At the time, the firm said it would “likely no longer have a direct physical presence in the UK or Europe” over the coming months.
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