Law Firm Closing or Merging: What to Do With the Library

When a law firm closes or merges, the library is one more job on a long list, and a heavy one: shelves of law reports, encyclopaedias and practitioner texts that someone has to deal with before the premises are handed back. What to do with them depends on why the firm is changing, so this guide takes closing, administration and merging in turn.

What happens to a law firm's library when the firm closes?

Nothing happens to it on its own. A firm's library is one of its assets, much like its desks and chairs, and someone has to decide what becomes of it before the office is emptied.

The Law Society's guide to disposing of a law library makes the point: a firm may want a valuation before a merger or sale, "so that the library can be included as part of the firm's assets." That is the right way to look at it when a firm closes, too. Find out what the books are worth first, because sets of law reports, Halsbury's Laws and Halsbury's Statutes, and practitioner texts (the reference books solicitors and barristers turn to when they advise a client) can have a resale value. Then decide what to do with each part.

Be clear which kind of valuation you are asking for. The Law Society explains that an insurance valuation is the cost of replacing the books, a sale valuation is what you could expect to make by selling them, and insurance valuations tend to be higher. A firm that is closing wants the sale kind, because a sale value is what it can expect to get for the books.

If the office has to be empty by a set date, such as the end of a lease, that date is what everything else works back from, so have it to hand when you start asking for valuations.

Who owns the books in an administration?

If the firm is a company or a limited liability partnership (LLP) and it has gone into administration, control of everything the firm owns, its library included, passes to the administrator.

GOV.UK explains that a company or LLP in administration must appoint an administrator, who must be a professional insolvency practitioner, and must hand over control of the company and everything it owns to them. For as long as the administration lasts, the administrator runs the business, and if the company cannot be saved, the administrator tries to pay as much of its debts as possible from its assets.

So if the library belongs to the firm, it is the administrator who decides what happens to it, and any money it raises may go towards the firm's debts. If you are not sure whether a particular set belongs to the firm or to someone personally, such as a partner who brought their own books, ask the administrator before anything leaves the building.

Whoever has the say over the library, the administrator included, can send us photos of the shelves for a free valuation.

Selling a law firm's library

The quickest first step is a set of photos of the shelves, or a stock list if the firm has one. We value the collection for free from either.

If the firm goes ahead, we pack the books straight from the shelves and collect them free from the office, wherever it is in the UK, so nobody at the firm has to box anything. Books are zero-rated for VAT, as our guide to second-hand law books and VAT explains. The money for the books goes into the seller's bank account, which is one more reason to settle who owns each set before anything is sold. Where part of the library has little resale value, we can talk about collecting it free of charge along with the sets we buy, so less is left for the firm to clear itself. Our page on law firm library clearance has more on how it works for firms, and the list of law books we buy shows the series by name.

What to do with a duplicate library after a law firm merger

When two firms merge, they can end up with two of everything: two runs of the All England Law Reports, two sets of Halsbury's Laws, two copies of each practitioner text. The new firm needs one, and the other is a surplus set.

Keep the better of the two. Compare them set by set and keep the run with fewer gaps, the one in better condition, and the one whose supplements and updates have been filed. For practitioner texts, keep the newer edition, because, as the University of Sheffield's library puts it, "the law changes over time, as new Acts of Parliament are passed, and new cases are heard."

Then look at what each firm pays to keep its sets up to date. Halsbury's Laws has annual and monthly updating, and Halsbury's Statutes has an annual Cumulative Supplement and a looseleaf service, so two firms with the same sets may both be paying for the same updates. Check both firms' subscriptions before the next renewal.

The surplus set is still a set, and sets are what we buy. The Law Society's point about getting a valuation before a merger applies here as well, so the surplus library is counted among the firm's assets before it goes.

Donating or recycling what is left

Some of what a closing or merging firm holds will not sell. The International Law Book Facility, a charity that gives second-hand legal books to not-for-profit organisations, accepts practitioner texts, so recent ones in good condition can be offered to it. It turns down books more than ten years old unless they are the last edition of a text, and you must contact it before sending anything. The Law Society library welcomes specific titles that would add to its collection, if you send it a list first. A firm with its own librarian can also use the Duplicates Exchange run by the British and Irish Association of Law Librarians, which the Law Society describes as a way to give away or sell unwanted materials three times a year.

Books that are past use are business waste once the firm throws them out. GOV.UK's guidance says a business must keep waste to a minimum by doing everything it reasonably can to prevent, reuse, recycle or recover waste, in that order. It must also check that its waste carrier is registered, and complete a waste transfer note for each load that leaves its premises. Reuse comes before recycling in that order, which is one more reason to get the valuation done before anything goes in a skip.

Our guide to what to do with old law books sets out all of these routes side by side, and our guide to donating law books has the full donation rules.

What to send us

Before the office is emptied, gather four things: a photo of each bay of shelving, taken from the front in good light so the spines can be read; the town or postcode of the office; the date it must be clear; and the name of whoever has the say over the library, whether that is a partner, a director or an administrator. Send them through the valuation form or on WhatsApp to 07920 748314, and we will value the library and say which of its sets we can buy.