Firm accuses Ian Rosenblatt of ‘offensive behaviour’; he fires back, calling the claims ‘untrue and defamatory’
The major shareholder of a listed legal business and its senior management have become embroiled in a public dispute after allegations of “offensive behaviour” were made against him.
Ian Rosenblatt, founder of the law firm Rosenblatt, has criticised RBG Holdings following a stock market statement in which the company accused him, its largest shareholder, of breaching consultancy agreements and restrictive covenants, as well as exhibiting “offensive behaviour unbecoming of a solicitor”.
RBG holdings owns two law firms, Rosenblatt and Memery Crystal. Earlier this week the group issued a public statement accusing Rosenblatt of acquiring another SRA regulated firm contrary to his agreements with RBG, at a time when he was negotiating with RBG about his restrictive covenant and pay structure.
It also said that he had been “verbally abusive” to a lender, behaviour that was “offensive”, and “unbecoming of a solicitor and consultant to RBG Holdings plc”. The group stated that Rosenblatt’s consultancy agreement had been “terminated”, with the board “exploring options for the recovery of the restrictive covenant, and also the loss of revenue anticipated over the next three years”.
Now, however, Rosenblatt, who strongly denies the claims, has hit back, accusing RBG of being “insolvent” and of making “substantially untrue and defamatory” remarks about him. In a separate statement, the businessman claimed that RBG has been “variously seeking to refinance its HSBC debt, sell its businesses or sell its business assets, either through a solvent or insolvent process”.
“Despite the protestations to the contrary of a number of individual members of the board, the company and its trading subsidiary RBG Legal Services is (and has been for a considerable period of time) insolvent,” Rosenblatt claimed.
RBG’s lender, HSBC, has employed restructuring specialists InterPath, Rosenblatt says, for “the past 18 months or so as a result of its inability to pay interest on the bank debt and to meet other terms of the facility agreement”.
In light of this, Rosenblatt said he had acquired an SRA regulated law firm, AWH Acquisition Corp Corporate Limited, in order to allow him to acquire Rosenblatt (the firm) from RBG, and continue its business. He says that InterPath “expressly authorised” him to do so.
The statement continued:
“All three proposals made by me to acquire the Rosenblatt business would result in having to be ready to trade immediately as well as to take on board large numbers of people and to set up back-office and document management technology not just for practicality but also to safeguard the interests of clients and the goodwill of Rosenblatt.”
The alleged breach of the consultancy agreement, he said, was “baseless” and a repudiatory breach, which he accepted, immediately terminating the agreement. He similarly disputed the breach of covenant, adding that he had “made every effort to either rescue the company as a going concern or salvage at least part of the business for the benefits of clients, employees and other stakeholders”.
In a fresh statement to The Times published yesterday, an RBG spokesperson stressed that “RBG is, and always has been, solvent”. They went on to add the company “has been working with advisors for a number of months to explore refinancing options”.
The row has so far caused RBG’s share price to plummet further, hitting a new low of 1.33p. This is down from an annual high of 13p in the summer, and is well below its 2021 peak of 160p.
