Garretts: 'deals close'

The formal break-up of Garretts - Andersen's English legal arm - could begin this week, it has emerged.A spokesman said the firm is hopeful that a deal securing all staff's future may be close to announcement by the end of the week.Such a deal would involve a 'co-ordinated approach' under which staff would be placed within a number of different firms, rather than a merger of the whole firm with another.Garretts has also begun work on finding places for its trainees at other City firms, but the spokesman said this was very much a 'second-best option' and represented the firm's last-resort strategy.He explained: 'We are taking soundings in relation to the trainees' places as a matter of caution.'The spokesman said the firm had been buoyed by the supportive and collegiate approach of other law firms: 'They have offered us advice, expressed interest in staff, and emphasised that the problems we have found ourselves in are not of our making.'Tony Williams, Garretts' senior partner, is not speaking publicly at the moment.Meanwhile, Garretts' regional offices have continued to break up with the departure of its Manchester managing partner to Addleshaw Booth & Co.

Tim Hamilton has moved with fellow corporate partner Phil McDonnell.

Addleshaw's managing partner, Mark Jones, said initial discussions with the pair began earlier this year when Garretts was looking to exit Manchester, but before the Enron scandal.Jeremy Fleming