Parabis Group has been broken up in a pre-pack administration, with Lyons Davidson and Carpenters Law among those buying parts of the business.

As Legal Week reported this morning, the firm had been expected to enter a pre-pack administration this week.

Today Peter Saville, Ben Browne and Anne O'Keefe, all of business-advisory firm AlixPartners, were appointed joint administrators of the group.

Saville said the group had been "unable to resolve its cash flow issues" despite "prolonged discussions" with its private equity backer and lenders and had to be broken-up.

Lyons Davidson has bought part of Parabis' claimant law business Cogent Law and its Saga Law business.

Meanwhile Carpenters Law has bought the rest of the Cogent Law arm.

The group's rehabilitation and medical legal reporting business Argent Rehabilitation has been sold to medical reports company Premex. Loss adjuster Davies Group has bought the Argent property and liability adjusting businesses and claims investigator Examworks Investigation Services has bought Argent's claims investigation business.

Despite the receipt of further support from its financial stakeholders, the group was unable to resolve its cash flow issues

As Legal Week reported earlier this month, Parabis founders Andrew McDougall and Tim Roberts led a management buyout of the group's biggest businesses Plexus Law and Greenwoods as part of the pre-pack administration.

That deal followed the collapse of talks to sell the businesses to Bolton-based firm Keoghs.

Plexus confirmed today that the firm, which will include more than 1,000 staff, will trade under the Plexus Law brand.

McDougall will assume the role of chief executive officer, while Roberts will become commercial director.

Partner Hilary Yeo will become Plexus' operations director and Parabis co-founder Nick Addyman will head up the firm's consumer law division.

Existing practice heads and operating partners within the law firm will continue in their roles in the new business.

Roberts said it was the "dawn of an exciting new chapter" for the firm.

He added: "We are building on the bedrock of strong relationships with our insurer clients and a great team of legal and support staff.

"In time we will look to build on the stability today's transaction affords and further develop our service offering, including our consumer law operation.

"In the meantime I'm delighted that we have been able to secure the jobs of so many people."

We are building on the bedrock of strong relationships with our insurer clients

Parabis has had a difficult few years. It acquired an Alternative Business Structure (ABS) licence in 2011 and private equity house Duke Street took a majority stake in the business in 2012. Plexus merged with fellow insurance firm Greenwoods in 2013.

However, it closed its Bristol and Colchester offices in October 2014 and also embarked on a consolidation of its three London offices. It also wound up the Croydon office of its claimant arm Cogent Law with the loss of 24 fee earners in 2014.

Duke Street made a further £13m investment in the business in December 2014.

But Duke Street then wrote down its €30m (£21.6m) investment in Parabis to zero earlier this year.

The latest accounts for Parabis' ultimate parent company Trilliam Holdco, which owns Parabis Law and sister companies trading under the Parabis umbrella, show that it owed Duke Street and its co-investors £52m on 31 March 2014.

The accounts also show Trilliam reported a pre-tax loss of £23.9m in the year to the end of March 2014. In the seven months to 31 March 2013 it reported a pre-tax loss of £2.1m.

In addition the accounts, filed in December last year, show Trilliam breached a number of banking facilities and covenants between April 2014 and the end of the year though these were subsequently waived.

Following the pre-pack administration Saville said: "The group has been in discussions with its lenders and private equity backer for a prolonged period with a view to restructuring what is a complex business operating in an increasingly challenging legislative environment.

"Despite the receipt of further support from its financial stakeholders, the Group was unable to resolve its cash flow issues and sought to market itself for sale.

"As a result of that marketing process it became apparent that in the current environment a sale of the group as a whole was not a viable option and the liabilities attached to group entities also precluded a solvent sale."

Parabis has also seen a string of exits this year. In March Plexus lost a 13-strong travel law team to Kennedys led by partners Claire Mulligan and Justin Collins.

Greenwoods' then head of counter fraud Karen Mann and then Parabis partner Jason Spencer joined Horwich Farrelly in September.

A 30-strong team, led by Greenwoods senior partner Malcolm Henke, is also understood to be leaving the firm to join Horwich Farrelly.