Insurance firm Horwich Farrelly has announced the hire of seven partners and another 36 lawyers and staff from Greenwoods, the defendant insurance arm of Plexus Law.

The news comes a day after Plexus’s parent Parabis Group went into administration with Plexus’s founders buying back the business, including Greenwoods.

Greenwoods head of catastrophic injury Malcolm Henke will assume the same role at Horwich Farrelly, leading a team of 50.

The other partners joining Horwich Farrelly include catastrophic and personal injury partners Rod Evans, Jane Hall, Chris Crook and Stephen Howcroft.

It had already emerged that Southampton partners Bilal Mirza and Simon Lindsey would be making the move, but Horwich Farrelly confirmed that the hires would also involve the firm expanding into Southampton to accommodate 20 lawyers and staff from Parabis. Evans will head up the Southampton office.

Horwich Farrelly partner Ronan McCann said Henke had an “enviable reputation”, adding: “In addition, his fellow partners and colleagues have handled ground-breaking cases that have set the benchmark for defendant insurance work over the last decade. It is therefore tremendously exciting to bring on-board such a wealth of experience in this way. We immediately gain undeniably market-leading expertise in the catastrophic personal injury area as well as significantly reinforcing our services for lower value motor and casualty claims.”  

The appointments increase the total number of staff at Horwich Farrelly to 660.

Parabis went into pre-packed administration yesterday (23 November) after a restructuring process managed by business advisory firm AlixPartners. The firm had been in talks with Bolton based Keoghs with a view to selling Plexus, but the deal fell through when Plexus opted for a buyout offer from its founding partners instead.

That deal completed yesterday with the new Plexus Law Ltd acquiring Plexus, 2013 merger partner Greenwoods, the consumer business of Cogent Law, and claims management company Parabis Claims Solutions.

London firm Lyons Davidson acquired the claimant law business of Cogent Law as well as Parabis’s ‘Saga Law’ service line and insurance firm Carpenters Law also acquired a portion of Cogent’s claimant business.