Norton Rose departees launch new insolvency firm

While everyone SiN has spoken to about the formation of Assured Legal Solutions assures us that the merger of Henry Davis York and Norton Rose Fullbright has nothing to do with their decision to strike out on their own, SiN is reluctant to attribute Assured’s conception to coincidence, it being the most unreliable of fathers.

That said, Assured is open for business on its own terms at 63 York Street.

Ex-Norton Rose special counsel Nicola Cosgrove is already on deck and will be joined by co-founder and Norton Rose restructuring and insolvency team partner Chris Cruikshank later this year.

Attribute the delay most likely to the kinds of restraints one would expect to be imposed on a partner looking to take his preferred referrers elsewhere.

In a press release Cosgrove said the new firm’s ethos is built around billing for performance.

“I saw an opportunity to work with people I respect and admire, to start from scratch and create a law firm that is innovative, agile and most importantly, founded on corporate values that align with my own personal values,” she said.

“Assured was built to solve the ‘more for less’ challenge that every business faces. We are focussed on delivering smart outcomes based on a pricing structure chosen by our clients and we price our results, not our effort”.

Also on board is John Holmes, who was a partner of Norton Rose Fulbright from 1998 to 2012 in the restructuring & insolvency division and chairman of the Sydney practice for three. Holmes said Assured was all about targeting the mid-market.

“The mid-market is a large area that’s not properly or probably well serviced at the moment,” Holmes said.

“I think the large firms want to chase the top end work. Hopefully that works for them but they leave behind a whole lot of areas that are available in relation to the mid-market work.

“In a nutshell we want to move away from the large firm syndrome to be able to find the niche in that mid-market,” he said.