A north-west family firm has confirmed it is in the process of closing down. Heaney Watson, with offices in Manchester and Liverpool, issued a statement today stating that the owners are shutting the business due to ‘financial difficulties’.

The firm said it has been in close contact with the Solicitors Regulation Authority for a number of weeks and fully engaged with the regulator throughout. Last week, it contacted all clients to make arrangements for the transfer of their case files to alternative providers.

The statement said most of these transfers have been completed, and Heaney Watson expressed its gratitude to the legal communities in Liverpool and Manchester for their help.

As a largely publicly-funded practice, the firm has also liaised with the Legal Aid Agency, which has been ‘very supportive and of immense assistance’ to ensuring a swift transition of files.

The statement added: ‘Our team has worked tirelessly to ensure that the best interests of clients are served and their files transferred to new providers to ensure continuity of representation. Our focus throughout has been to try to minimise the inevitable disruption to our clients.’

The firm’s website and Twitter account was shut yesterday as it emerged Heaney Watson was subject to a winding-up order from creditor Premium Credit Limited. The petition will be heard at Liverpool County Court on 22 May.

The firm’s website features a notice from Bristol-based designer Conscious Solutions that the site is suspended having ‘exceeded its network data transfer allowance’.

The Liverpool Echo reported in 2009 that the firm had been founded from the demerger of Goodmans family law department and included former Goodmans partners Liza Watson, Simon Heaney and Tracy Winstanley.

According to an article in the Manchester Evening News, the firm acquired the family law team at Manchester’s Adam Taylor Solicitors in 2010.

The firm, which had 10 solicitors, has established itself as a specialist in family mediation. Last year Winstanley was named as family mediator of the year at the Legal Aid Practitioners Group’s Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year Awards.

In 2014, Heaney Watson joined with four other firms to support a free legal advice service to start-up businesses and members of the public, coordinated by Liverpool John Moores University’s School of Law.