Can SGH be saved, page-55

A risk people haven't considered is solicitors deciding, of their own accord, to leave SGH for other employers or establishing their own firm.

Clients are not bound to continue giving instructions to their current lawyer. It is possible for such clients to instruct SGH to move their files to another solicitor - no questions asked.

Whilst there are rules about not soliciting clients after you leave a firm it is not difficult for the new employer to extensively publish the new contact details of a solicitor and use this pretence to migrate clients to the solicitor's new firm.

This all comes down to how secure the solicitors feel remaining at SGH and is therefore an exercise in psychology. If a few start to leave and a trickle becomes a flood everything unwinds very quickly as a self-fulfilling prophecy. If they keep their heads then the chances of surviving the current turmoils are much greater.