Hampson Hughes marketed itself aggressively in its heydey
Letters before action have been issued seeking to recover over £2m from people involved in the demise of one-time personal injury giant Hampson Hughes.
The firm, one of the most high-profile law firms in the country a decade ago as a result of its TV and radio advertising, went into administration in October 2021 and its files sold off to eight other law firms.
Multiple factors contributed to the firm’s collapse, including the whiplash reforms and the directors disagreeing on its future direction.
HH Law, which traded as Hampson Hughes, was set up by Paul Hampson and John Hughes in 2009, although it was run by Emma McConlough from 2018, in consultation with them, due to the founders’ focus on other interests.
The latest report of the joint administrators from Leonard Curtis and Grant Thornton said their investigations “have identified eight separate claims against six separate parties and consist of various loans, overpayments and antecedent transactions (eg transaction at an undervalue/preference)”.
The total claims were estimated to exceed £2m. “Letters before action have been issued to each of the parties setting out the basis of the claim and the joint administrators are currently with the parties.”
The update said 1,148 client files with accrued work in progress (WIP) of £11.5m were shared between the eight law firms, of which 493 were ultimately rejected and a further 92 aborted, representing £5.3m of WIP.
In total, the administration has so far generated £1.4m in receipts, but at a cost of nearly £1m. Leonard Curtis has handled the bulk of the work, compared to Grant Thornton, and been paid £483,000 so far.
The administrators said they expected both preferential creditors – former staff – and HM Revenue & Customs as secondary preferential creditor, owed just over £1m, to be paid in full. Unsecured creditors should receive a dividend too, the level of which was currently uncertain.
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