One of the rash of new-breed consultancy law firms, with solicitors sharing the fees they made, has gone into administration.

Cubism Law states on its website that the business had been placed into the hands of joint administrators from insolvency specialist Quantuma LLP.

Speculation has been rife in recent weeks that the firm was in trouble following departures to rival firms.

Financial records also reveal that debts at the firm had risen sharply in recent years. The annual report for the year ending 28 February 2018, shows amounts owed to creditors within one year increasing from £1.6m to £2.3m. The average monthly number of people employed by the company increased during the year from 29 to 38.

Joint Administrator and Quantuma partner, Andrew Hosking, said it had overseen the safe transfer of the business to a number of acquiring firms, with all client matters transferred in accordance with the clients’ instructions.

Hosking added: 'Trading conditions remain difficult in the mid-market legal sector, with ongoing market uncertainties. In the last year the firm’s creditors have risen sharply. This factor, coupled with the departures of a number of key consultants, has resulted in the firm being unable to continue to trade.'

Cubism Law was set up in 2006 by former Field Fisher Waterhouse partner Andrew Pena and retained a base in central London.

It operated a fee-sharing model with its lawyers which allowed them to retain a proportion of the income they made. In 2010, former director Martin Hosken told the Gazette that the firm was set up to recruit senior lawyers with established clients and provide the branding and office infrastructure they needed.

Cubism Limited, the holding company, was granted an alternative business structure licence by the SRA in March 2015, with David Sedgwick named as head of legal practice and finance and administration. Sedgwick is a litigator and former chief executive of national firm Clarke Wilmott, who was a director of Cubism Law and is also chief executive of Oxfordshire firm Echelon Law, which advises law firms at their succession and exit strategy.