Devastating e-mail received

ladyh0

About an hour ago I received an e-mail from my boss that Firm has been closed down with effect from Monday and we cannot return to office.  I work for a law firm and SRA informed him yesterday that they have made an intervention order.  We (staff) had no idea that this was going to happen and has obvs come as a devastating shock.  I have worked there for 21 years.  I have been scouring the internet to see what my rights/options are and obvs will try and find out more information next week but just hoping that someone here could give me even some basic advice so I dont go into meltdown over the weekend 😫         

ladyh0

Hi.  Just to add that all staff (apart from me and junior) are furloughed so will they still get paid this month under Furlough scheme? 

MalMonroe

There's this : 
https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/solicitor-closed-down/intervention-employees-effect
Are you at all concerned about what the firm has been doing to prompt this action?
There's also this : https://www.sra.org.uk/sra/decision-making/guidance/consumer-intervening-protect-clients/

ladyh0

Of course I am concerned.  I have worked there for 20 years and this came out of the blue.  The only reason we have been given is historical breaches of account rules. 

anteguardian

Sorry to hear this has come out of the blue... I’m also at threat of redundancy and have to wait 2 weeks to find out if I’m being made redundant or not so I completely understand your frustration, fear and anxiety after being with them for so long.

All I can do is empathise with you as I don’t know much about the process myself either, but hope you get through this.

ladyh0

Many thanks.  It is a minefield.  I should get a decent redundancy settlement but have no idea who I claim it from, how long it takes etc.  I will have no income at the end of the month and the stress and anxiety is awful. I am sorry about your situation also and hope the news is good for you in 2 weeks .

Masomnia

You can claim statutory redundancy pay and notice from the government. See https://www.gov.uk/your-rights-if-your-employer-is-insolvent

As far as I know it's fairly straightforward to claim.

TBagpuss

I'm sorry that this has happened. You will be entitled to notice pay, accrued holidays and redundancy - if the closure means that the firm is insolvent you should be able to claim from th government and of not from the company or the partners, if it was a partnership. 
You may be able to check for further information about the intervention via the Law Society - historic breaches of the accounts rules are unlikely to have resulted in an intervention, unless they involved misappropriation of client funds and/or repeated failures to cooperate with the SRA or to replace money taken from client account. 
Fortunately as an employee, unless you were in the accounts department it's unlikely that you would be implicated or that it would affect your ability to find a new job, as it is unlikely that it is anything you would have been expected to know about or report.