A former employee of a legal firm that suddenly entered administration last month has described the “absolute shambles” that engulfed its offices in its last days.
BLB Solicitors, whose main office was based on Trowbridge’s Roundstone Street, entered into administration at midday on April 30.
The business immediately closed all six of the business' branches, in Bradford on Avon, Bath, Swindon, Bristol, and Almondsbury alongside Trowbridge.
The firm’s position had been made public only days before, and clients were left in limbo with no way of accessing important legal documents such as wills.
Now, an employee of the former company, who asked not to be named, has described what happened over the course of the company’s final week.
Branding the process as an “absolute shambles”, they said that they were first told of the plan to sell the company on April 23, a week before it entered administration.
They explained that in hindsight, there had been signs of something going on ahead of the climatic final week of April.
They said the company had developed a new policy of giving employees expensive bottles of champagne on their birthdays, and gift cards at Christmas, which most staff felt was not necessary and that they’d have simply preferred the cash.
However, they clarified that at the time, they had no inkling of what was to come. They explained: “We had no idea.
“We were told the week before. We were summoned to a meeting, and we were basically told there and then they had to sell the business, and there had been three interested [parties].
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“The Friday [April 24] we were told before we went home that everything was looking very good…then we landed on Monday morning with ‘no, it had all fallen through’.
“We were told we would no longer be employed, we wouldn’t be paid for April, and that we would have to leave the building by 12 o’clock on Thursday April 30.
“We were still working, sending deeds and wills, and things like that. People went absolutely manic, panicking.
“We were told to start sending letters out on the Monday, emails, and that was it. We were then reminded about 11 o’clock, ‘on April 30, you need to leave the building by midday, end of’.”
The employee said the staff were never given a reason why the sale did not proceed, and that there was something suspicious going on.
Looking back on the week that it all happened, the employee said: “It’s been an utter nightmare. I’m expected to carry on doing work, as well as telling people that as of 12 o’clock it would close.
“It was an absolute shambles. You want to do well for your clients, and most people have been loyal to the firm.
“It was a total and utter shock. All clients were dumbfounded and panicking, as were we.
“It’s just a total nightmare, like having the rug pulled out. You don’t have time to plan anything.”
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They added that they were advised to sign up for jobseekers’ allowance or universal credit, and that their “lifestyle has completely changed.”
As previously reported in this paper, a legal firm has reportedly been instructed to pursue legal action.
According to the PA Claim representatives, the closure of BLB Solicitors reportedly left around 90 employees out of work, and raised questions over the handling of redundancies.
Danny Rogers is a client of the firm, and says up until this point, he had been very happy with how his affairs had been handled.
However, he told this paper he had been left scratching his head after hearing that the firm would be going into administration on the radio. He had not, however, heard anything from BLB Solicitors.
Another client of the firm, who declined to be named for this story, but who was also visiting the offices of the firm on the morning of Thursday, April 30, said she has heard about the impending appointment of administrators “through the grapevine”.
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