PARTNERS at troubled law firm Halliwells have just 48 hours to sign a deal and appoint their favoured administrator – or go back to the courts.

The firm lodged a notification of intent to appoint an administrator with the Companies Court on June 24.

But that only has a 10-working-day shelf life, which expires at the end of tomorrow.

Halliwells, which has offices in Liverpool’s Plaza building, as well as a plush head office in Spinningfields, in Manchester, has apparently been in takeover talks with Liverpool-based Hill Dickinson.

It was widely believed that the firm was negotiating the terms of a pre- pack administration so it could be brought out of administration as a going concern.

But so far a deal has proved elusive.

Sources told LDP Legal that the talks between Halliwells and Hill Dickinson had reached a “sensitive” stage and the situation could change within “five minutes”.

But the legal press has reported that the talks have broken down and that Halliwells is now in discussions with other regional firms about dividing the business more widely.

Halliwells, whose managing partner is former Liverpool office head Jonathan Brown, initially said it wanted to transfer the business “in its entirety” to another “highly regarded” law firm, thought to be Hill Dickinson.

Rebuffing speculation that the negotiations have not gone to plan, one senior Halliwells partner said simply: “Do I sound disappointed?”

The firm’s official spokeswoman said last night that the firm could keep on lodging notices of intent “for months”.

But administration specialists said that was a risky strategy.

Corporate recovery specialist Jon Newell, who is a partner at accountant PKF, said: “There is nothing to say you cannot serve more than one notice to appoint. But the whole point is that: a – you’ve got to be insolvent, and b – you’ve got to intend to do it.

“You do run the risk of filing more than one, in that the courts may say ‘wait a moment, what are you doing?’

“They may file a second notice, but I do not think they will file a third because the business will have deteriorated by then.

“If you cannot do it within 20 days, people start saying ‘there is no deal there’.”

Asked about the imminent deadline for the notice to appoint, a Halliwells spokeswoman told LDP Legal: “It is in general 10 days, but it can be a rolling statement. I believe it can be done a couple more times.

“If they are virtually about to sort something out, they could keep it going. They would be able to keep it going for months.”