In the very rare circumstance that a client relationship ends and then a new relationship supersedes it, then we will recognise a change in Client Ownership.
This can happen in two specific situations. The first is where a client specifically disinstructs the lawyer who owns that client, and no longer wants to deal with them at all, or to allow them to select a new lawyer to help them going forward. In such a case, the client will contact another colleague to explain the situation, or more commonly, will contact Central Office. In either case, Central Office becomes responsible for restarting the client relationship and resolving the issue. As a result, Central Office takes over client ownership.
The second exception is where a client, which is already owned by a Pod goes through a change of control such that the persons within the client known by those in the relevant Pod are no longer able to instruct us on behalf of that client. This can happen in relation to a person, if the client loses mental capacity and the litigation friend or guardian takes over, if a corporate client goes into an insolvency process and an insolvency practitioner takes over or if a corporate client is purchased and new owners/directors take over. In these three cases, where the new instructing party on behalf of the client chooses to instruct us, that instruction will be looked at as a first-time instruction and client ownership will be determined again based on what caused the client to instruct us: the previous relationship between the client owner and the client, or something else.