Partnership disputes — in law firms, accountancy practices, consultancies, family businesses, and other partnership structures — combine the governance complexity of a corporate dispute with the personal intensity of a relationship breakdown. The partners know each other, often well; they have shared history, shared clients, and in many cases shared personal relationships that make a formal dispute both professionally damaging and personally painful. Investigation in this context requires a specific sensitivity that is absent from purely institutional corporate investigation.
Common Partnership Dispute Scenarios
Breach of the partnership agreement: one partner has conducted themselves in a way that breaches the partnership agreement, whether through competition, solicitation of clients, misuse of partnership assets, or failure to meet their obligations under the agreement.
Financial misconduct: a partner has drawn more than their entitlement, failed to account properly for client or trust monies, or diverted partnership income for personal benefit.
Expulsion disputes: a partner who has been expelled from the partnership, or who faces expulsion, challenges the grounds or the process, requiring an objective investigation of the specific conduct alleged to justify expulsion.
Dissolution disputes: on the dissolution of a partnership, disputes about the valuation of assets, the allocation of goodwill, the treatment of work in progress, and the conduct of partners during the run-up to dissolution.
Client and staff solicitation: a departing partner who has taken clients, staff, or confidential information in breach of their obligations, requiring investigation of the specific contacts made, the information used, and the commercial consequences.
Investigation Approach
Partnership dispute investigations combine financial analysis — establishing what was taken, when, and from what source — with open source and corporate intelligence to establish the departing partner’s current position and any business activity that may represent a breach of their obligations. Where a restrictive covenant or non-solicitation obligation is in issue, investigation of the partner’s client and staff contact in the relevant period is central to establishing the breach.
Investigating a partnership dispute? Contact Bond Rees for expert, sensitive corporate investigation support.
