Global Counsel's rivals took its staff and clients after weighing a deal to buy the firm

A formal deal could have let the buyers inherit Global Counsel staff and some of its remaining client contracts ^[3]. One person close to the discussions said Interpath's advisers pitched it as "people and clients as a standalone deal for a bit of the business" ^[9]. FGS and Flint took a group of staff and clients without a formal deal ^[10]. On the record so far, the buyers got the part of the offer they wanted and the administration completed no sale ^[18].

Clients left en masse once the Epstein ties surfaced ^[8]. The two consultancies still wanted Global Counsel's clients, and they went after them by hiring ^[10]. The interest Interpath recorded in the client book and intellectual property was real ^[4]. "Following engagement with interested parties, to date no viable transaction has proved possible," Interpath executives said ^[6].

FGS and Interpath declined to comment and Flint Global did not respond ^[17]. I think the incentives explain most of why the buyers chose to hire. Buying out of administration means paying an estate. It also means taking on contracts from a firm whose collapse followed reports that Epstein helped shape it even after his first conviction ^[7]. Hiring a partner puts the cost on the buyer's payroll. Each client then decides whether to follow.

The scandal has attached to the entity more firmly than to most of its people. Benjamin Wegg-Prosser, chief executive for more than 15 years, resigned in an attempt to stave off the collapse ^[13]. Emails released by the US Department of Justice showed he attended a meeting with Epstein after the financier's first conviction and sought his counsel over a potential sale to Lazard ^[14]. He has emphatically denied any formal ties with Epstein ^[15]. PR firm Sodali has since taken him on as an external adviser, and a spokesman said: "Ben Wegg-Prosser has advised Sodali on a review of the global public consultancy market." ^[16] Mandelson, whose exchanges with Epstein make up most of the emails linking the firm to him, has been arrested on charges of misconduct in public office, according to City AM ^[12].

For a board running a partner-led advisory firm, this quarter's question is how much of the firm's value it could sell, as distinct from how much its partners could take with them. Global Counsel's record suggests that in a reputational crisis the second figure sets the first, because rivals can hire where they would otherwise have to buy ^[10]. That limit is set now, before any crisis. It decides what the firm would fetch if one arrived. The administration is still open, and Interpath's "to date" leaves room for a sale ^[6]. With several former senior partners now at FGS ^[11], I would expect any later deal to be small.