Alistair Morris resigns from Scottish government’s review of legal services

Alistair Morris, the former chief executive of collapsed law firm Pagan Osborne has resigned from the Scottish government’s review of legal services, The Herald reports.

The review is due to make recommendations later this year on how regulations could be revised, particularly in relations to complaints.

Mr Morris, who was appointed last year to the 11-person panel as one of three solicitor representatives, has returned to practice at a law firm in Kirkcaldy.

He said he chose to resign for personal reasons.

“I don’t want to go into the reasons why I have resigned because they are all personal to me,” Mr Morris said.

“It was a position where I was nominated by the Law Society but approved by the Scottish government.”

Mr Morris will remain a member of the Judicial Appointments Board of Scotland, with his term ending next February.

He has now taken up a role at Andrew K Price, a practice that was bought out of Pagan Osborne in 1992.

Pagan Osborne collapsed last September after it was unable to satisfy expensive sub-prime loans taken out to help with cashflow following the downturn in the property market.

In 2013 it was given a short-term loan of £1.3 million by an unnamed individual, whom it attempted to repay by selling off the residential lettings business.

Administrators Tom Maclennan and Iain Fraser of FRP Advisory said in a note to creditors last year: “The business consistently experienced cashflow problems caused by the obligation to repay the loan received in 2013 and the general inability of the business to meet budgets.

“As a result of these cashflow problems and in order to clear liabilities with HMRC and others the company took out a number of short-term loans from sub-prime lenders with what are now clear were exorbitant interest rates.

“These short-term loans served only to exacerbate the cashflow problems of the company.”