"It's great, this way we save money making our own lunch."
"If only food prices weren't soaring."
RollOnFriday has been told that Ince is set to acquire Child & Child. But on the other side of the balance sheet, the firm is closing its in-house café as it looks to save some cash.
A source told RollOnFriday that Ince Gordon Dadds is "finally" buying Child & Child and that an announcement would be made to the market shortly.
It is not the first time rumours of Ince's possible acquisition of Child & Child have done the rounds, and it remains to be seen whether the merger will materialise, as neither firm responded to a request for comment. Should the purchase go ahead, the correct name for the new firm would of course be Dadds Child.
In the meantime, a source reports that Ince has told staff it is closing its in-house restaurant to save money - replacing it with coffee machines.
Shuttering the dining facilities neatly precludes the kind of drama that caused such problems last year, when senior employees were accused of insulting a waitress at an off-site restaurant.
It’s a busy time for Ince. RollOnFriday revealed last month that the cash-strapped firm would be dropping its London office mid-lease, and warned staff there may be a gap before it finds replacement premises. The mid-lease exit remains the case, but the likelihood of staff working from home without alternative has receded: Ince has emailed staff informing them that it has agreed terms with its landlord to remain in Aldgate Tower for the next 18 months.
"As well as the substantial cost savings of this decision, the extra time to move will allow us to secure a more suitable long term space for our business growth," said the email. "Eliminating the need for us to work from home for any period, and allowing us a more timely and smooth transition in 2024."
The email added that the firm would "be making improvements to Aldgate Tower" for the remaining period (if a coffee machine replacing a café can count as an improvement). And signed off by announcing that it has commenced its search for a West End office, which it said was a "key" location for much of its London business.
If you're at Ince and know anything more about the proposed Child & Child merger, or are quietly fuming at the prospect of having to queue at Pret when the café closes, do get in touch.
Comments
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Watch out for a pre-pack …
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We’re getting fruit instead. Daily! !! Five a day!
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No food and no overseas offices. Ince High St
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If RoF was a paper mag, it would be useful for the first time... as toilet paper 😉
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ROF are really scraping the barrel with this ‘news’
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Is child & child still going hahaha - well looks like C&C will sink now alongside the mighty Ince titanic going down!!! Hahaha
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Do you reckon IGD staffers get paid a bonus based on the number of comments they make on RoF stories pointing out how a once respectable firm like Ince has been debased by current management?
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@Anonymous 09:34, but it is news though. Clearly you’re at INCE or have some allegiance to it but when you work for a firm that has no overseas offices, no city lease and now no cafe - in comparison to pre covid, this must hurt? As a lawyer - would you want to work somewhere with no cafe on site? It’s actually a mockery of the great staff who work there and a lot of them are 50+ who can’t hobble to the nearest pret or pretentious food stall selling knock off tapas on a Wednesday lunchtime.
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Check out Child & Child Law Limited at Companies House. I assume the involvement of one Adrian John Biles as of 21 October 2022 is pure coincidence.
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Wonder how asia is doing? Ince Management Asia tour is live.
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The trend of firms getting rid of cafes (or replacing them with Costa Coffee, Benugo, etc) is horrific.
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Dadds Child .... LOL
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@9.54 Did you read the article? Ince is in the same building it was pre-Covid. Are you saying it’s squatting there without a lease? Huge if true. It still has all its overseas offices it had pre-Covid, save Gibraltar. “…some of whom are 50+…” is probably the most pathetic point ever made on a message board. People over 50 can’t move? WTF? What exactly was the point of that post? “Firm closes cafe”? Wow.
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@10:29 You clearly missed the tongue-in-cheek vibe to my 50+ comment. I get the feeling you and I would not get along in real life. Your parties must be fun.
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GOrDon daddS CHILDREN, surely?
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When is the SRA, or AIM, going to put an end to the acquisition of troubled firms by GD / Ince as a means to take over their WIP but not their debts? At what point does this way of raising money become fraudulent?
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Who even still works at child and child or allium law can’t remember what they are called ? What have ince purchased just a crappy name?
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Child Dads far better surely
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Whether you like them or not, the Biles brothers have ideas and they try them out and it doesn’t work but at least they had the balls to try. We need more entrepreneurs.
For example, their idea to buy out their Nomad was genius, but scuppered by something completely unexpected. The next idea looks like Child and Child.
Also, for many years they have also given job security to a lot of people in troubled law firms, including my spouse.
On the other hand, they are brutal and feared. That’s no way to run a law firm. They absolutely must stick to business development and leave the rest to their excellent team.
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It’s a floater like DWF and Knights so what do you expect? F@@@ everybody and everything because it’s the next set of numbers which dictates the share price and nothing else matters. Judging by the way their share prices have dropped, things are not going at all well.
I wonder where they will all be in 3 years time when the city sees them for what they really are?
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@Eggery, the idea to purchase their nomad was not genius, and if they had been properly advised by err…their own lawyers and nomad they would have not found AIM regulation’s response “unexpected”.
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@eggery The Biles don’t work for Ince anymore. They don’t have a “team” at the moment so far as I’m aware.
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Closing a cafe isn’t as bad as closing an office. Watch this space as another listed basket case will be forced into such a move, within 6 months.
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Adrian and Robert Biles incorporated “Child & Child Law Ltd” on 21 Oct. However, neither of them work for Ince anymore, as previously reported here.
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The Biles don't work for Ince anymore. However, they (the Biles) have incorporated a new firm "Child & Child Law Limited". That's where the rumour has started.