CoL left with £450,000 Halliwells bad debt
The College of Law (CoL) is owed almost half a million pounds by Halliwells relating to unpaid LPC fees for the 2009-10 financial year.
Nigel Savage
The institution, which ran the LPC for Halliwells’ trainees on an exclusive basis, is one of dozens of creditors owed a total of £14.1m by the law firm, which went into administration in July this year.
CoL chief executive Nigel Savage said that the organisation might be left with no choice but to write off the bad debt, which amounts to £448,293.30.
“They owe us [but] because we’re unsecured creditors, we’re further down the list,” he explained.
“The primary thing was to make sure that the students could take the exams and make sure they were placed with firms.”
Savage said that he “had no inkling” of the financial difficulties Halliwells was going through, “except that our debts hadn’t been paid”.
“We gave them time to pay like you would in any other situation,” he added.
The first report to creditors from Halliwells administrators Dermot Power and Shay Bannon of BDO, a copy of which was leaked to The Lawyer, revealed the names of businesses, barristers and expert witnesses owed money by Halliwells.
These range from the HMRC, which is owed £4.3m, to dozens of small businesses such as Pavarottis Sandwich Bar on Threadneedle Street, from which the firm ordered thousands of pounds worth of food up until the day it collapsed (20 September 2010).
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Readers' comments (32)
Spucchenzio Dogga | 20-Sep-2010 3:44 pm
If the fees are unpaid, does that mean the students can't qualify? Tee hee!
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Little Nell | 20-Sep-2010 3:45 pm
You'd have a heart of stone not to laugh at this.
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Anonymous | 20-Sep-2010 4:04 pm
The fees are too high anyway
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Anonymous | 20-Sep-2010 4:14 pm
If the College of Law can write off nearly half a million then clearly it is making too much money.
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Lenin | 20-Sep-2010 5:45 pm
Re Little Nell, why, is this funny?! Yeah, cos there's such a laugh in capitalists screwing over the working class. You stupid kulak.
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Anonymous | 20-Sep-2010 6:41 pm
I went to the Manchester COL last year with all the other Halliwells students and had a great time; good people there and they did a lot for us over last summer, many of us have found jobs because of the work they put in for us when evidently they didn't really have to but I'm very grateful that they did. That we seem to have got all that for free - feels odd. But it is probably best not to complain.
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Anonymous | 20-Sep-2010 6:56 pm
"CoL chief executive Nigel Savage said that the organisation might be left with no choice but to write off the bad debt, which amounts to £448,293.30". What a great example the CoL are setting for future members of the profession....." Students, don't bother litigating on behalf of your wronged clients, just roll over and let them *uck you all".
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Anon | 20-Sep-2010 7:58 pm
Even more outrageous than Halliwells' bad debt to the CoL is that this so-called "charity" pays Mr Savage £440K a year, his deputy £410K and an average of £275K a year to every member of its management board. Trebles all round, chaps!!
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Anonymous | 20-Sep-2010 10:25 pm
The writing off of the debt is not a decision that the College has any choice over. The decision to allow the students to take the exams and the decision to offer them support in obtaining training contracts elsewhere is a decision that The College has made and this should be recognised. Whilst I appreciate that it is fashionable to criticise The College, BPP and other providers of the LPC, you speak volumes about yourselves in not giving credit where and when it is due.
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City Gent | 21-Sep-2010 0:54 am
So the management of CoL let a debt of nearly £450,000 build up without taking any action, and as a result of their dopiness it's now to be written off.
"Savage said that he “had no inkling” of the financial difficulties Halliwells was going through, “except that our debts hadn’t been paid”."
Well Mr Savage, when a company doesn't pay its debts that is often an indicator that it's in financial difficulties.
By a remarkable coincidence the loss is only slightly more than the astonishing £440,000 that Nigel Savage is getting paid for running this outfit, which is, believe it or not, a registered charity!
Charity certainly begins at home for some - why bother with the stress of partnership with jobs like this up for grabs.
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