TLT has been instructed by former partners of collapsed law firm Halliwells in two separate legal cases as a long-running multimillion-pound dispute with the liquidators of the Manchester-based outfit is set to result in further legal action.

Later this month TLT will represent nine ex-Halliwells partners, who left before the firm's collapse in 2010, at the Court of Appeal in a dispute over whether the retirement deed they negotiated on departure protected them against any subsequent claims by liquidators looking to recover money paid to them by the firm.

Under insolvency law, a liquidator can bring proceedings to recover capital withdrawn from the partnership by its members in the two years before the partnership was wound up, but only if it can prove the partners knew of the firm's impending insolvency when they withdrew capital.

The group of partners resigned from Halliwells to move to Kennedys' Sheffield office six months before Halliwells filed a notice of its intention to appoint an administrator.

The upcoming hearing is the result of the liquidator's decision to appeal an October High Court ruling that the nine partners could not be pursued for overdrawings amounting to £125,000 each.

In the earlier hearing one of the former partners, Stephen Fennell, was represented by Irwin Mitchell but he is now instructing TLT, with partner John Lord leading on the case.

Partner Julien Luke brought the ex-Halliwells partners across as a client from Irwin Mitchell after he joined TLT in 2013.

Separately, TLT has also won a mandate to defend a group of 26 former Halliwells fixed-share partners in a dispute with the liquidator over other liabilities related to the firm's collapse.

That dispute has been running for five years, with Irwin Mitchell representing the former partners.

The liquidator is seeking millions of pounds in drawings, tax contributions and other payments from the 26 former fixed-share partners.

The liquidator's claims are based on fixed-share members' purported knowledge of the firm's insolvency before it entered a formal administration process, a claim that the fixed-share members challenge.

Halliwells' liquidators are being represented by Addleshaw Goddard in both cases, which instructed 11 Stone Buildings' Lexa Hilliard QC in the High Court case.

Halliwells had around 100 partners and 600 staff across offices in Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield and London before its collapse in July 2010. Hill Dickinson, Barlow Lyde & Gilbert (now Clyde & Co), Gateley and Kennedys each took over parts of the business after Halliwells went into administration.