2023 was a turbulent year for North West law firm Napthens with the sudden departure of its CEO, a cyber attack and, now it is revealed, a fall in profits. Tony McDonough reports
North West law firm Napthens will be hoping for a better 2024 after a number of setbacks in 2023 including the sudden departure of its chief executive, a cyber attack and a fall in profits.
Napthens, which has a sizable and growing operation in Liverpool, has just filed its annual accounts for the 12 months to March 31, 2023, on Companies House. They reveal a rise in revenues to £21.4m, up from £19.5m in the previous year.
They also show a small fall in pre-tax profits to £5.1m from £5.3m in 2022. During the accounting period the firm had 28 partners. They will share a £3.42m pot with the highest paid partner receiving £287,661.
Headquartered in Preston, Napthens has offices in Southport, Blackburn, Cumbria and the Fylde Coast. It employs more than 260 people and, as of November 2023 had 27 people in The Plaza in Liverpool – a rise of 20% on the previous 12 months.
Its specialist areas include corporate finance, commercial property, dispute resolution and HR. For individuals its services include family law, wealth management, wills and probate and residential property.
When businesses file their accounts on Companies House they often include a commentary on the performance during the accounting period. Napthens offers no insights in its latest report and this is consistent with its practice in previous years.
However, at the end of the report in a section headlined ‘Events after the reporting period’ it reveals that between November 23 and December 20, 2023, it suffered a computer outage caused by a cyber attack on a third party IT service provider.
Napthens said: “The affected parts of the business continued to operate on a reduced capacity basis between these dates, undertaking a risk-based approach where appropriate to ensure all priority transactions were facilitated in line with all regulatory guidelines.
“The impact of this outage continues to be quantified in conjunction with the group’s insurers who have been put on notice regarding the incident and any potential claims, along with the relevant regulator who is fully supportive of impacted firms.”
This week the firm said that IT services were “fully restored” on December 20 and that normal service had resumed since.
Curiously, the section does not mention the sudden departure of chief executive Alex Hatchman in August 2023. She left along with director of strategy and development, Ben Sears, and operations director, Gillian Carlisle-Collett. An interim executive committee was installed following the departures.
No reason was given for Alex’s departure. In a short statement the firm said: “We regret to announce that CEO Alex Hatchman will be leaving Napthens. The firm is grateful to Alex for her hard work and dedication to Napthens, and wishes her well in her next role.”
Wirral-born Alex, who is a non-lawyer, joined Napthens as chief executive in February 2022. She joined several months after her departure from Southport-based Fletchers Solicitors where she was also CEO.
In an interview with LBN in June 2022, she said: “What I want to build at Napthens is a Tesla law firm… I want it to be an intelligent vehicle and use technology to better deliver our services to our customers.”
Napthens told LBN on Monday that it now had a new board in place. Jonathan Fox remains as chair, with partners Kieran Donovan, David Hill and Oli McCann elected by the partnership. The board is completed with Nicola Mason, head of people and operations, and Stephen Faulkner, head of finance.
Announcing new hires in November, Kieran Donovan, corporate partner and head of Napthens’ Liverpool office, said: “Growth within our Liverpool office serves as a key pillar in Napthens’ strategy to establish itself as one of the most innovative and fastest-growing law firms across the North West.
“The new appointments clearly demonstrate we are recruiting exceptional talent and growing our city region offering, and this continued growth will lead to moving to a new larger office in 2024.”