Valentine's Day love-in for Cobbetts and HL

It didn’t take long, but Cobbetts’ debt recovery business, Incasso, has found that special someone. HL Legal Solicitors has agreed to buy the team from the collapsed Manchester’s firm’s administrators, KPMG, in a deal announced today.

It had been a shaky few days for Incasso. When Cobbetts filed notice to appoint administrators and began seeking a buyer at the end of last month, DWF was in there like a shot, which was no surprise given that the two firms had discussed a merger in 2011. Andrew Leaitherland said the deal took 17 days to complete from start to finish. But DWF did not take all of Cobbetts in the pre-pack deal, leaving the firm’s finance litigation team and Incasso behind.

The finance litigation team, however, was snapped up almost instantly by Walker Morris, which had been advising Lloyds as Cobbetts’ lender. But no news was forthcoming about the debt recovery business. Until today, that is. And it sounds like the perfect match. HL Legal specialises in advising on pre-legal collection matters, as well as giving litigation advice to lenders and debt buyers.

Good for them, we say: it is a day for coming together, after all.

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