Philip Conn & Co partners scatter as firm collapses

Manchester firm Philip Conn & Co - the firm whose merger with Donns famously failed after just 29 days in April 1996 - has gone out of business, it has emerged.

Former partners Ian Morris and Terry Osborn have moved across the city to work on intellectual property at Berg & Co, while Andrew Gibson has joined Liverpool firm Hill Dickinson.

Philip Conn, who was a consultant at the firm, has retired.Mr Osborn, now an associate at Berg & Co, said the break-up of the firm was 'financially driven and to do with looking forward'.The firm was founded in 1975 solely as a commercial practice, and subsequently developed a substantial intellectual property practice.

It also provided commercial conveyancing and litigation services.The 1996 merger - much remarked upon for the firms' names before it collapsed - broke down over financial issues.

Raymond Donn, senior partner of Donn & Co (as it then was), said at the time that it rescinded the contracts as a result of information that came to light after the merger was concluded.Andrew Towler