Alan Morcombe, Alphameric PLC

'Nabarro has been working with Alphameric for probably 15 years. We use them in a whole range of areas: acquisitions, disposals, restructuring - corporate business. We’ve done four or five acquisitions and have made one significant disposal. Nabarro have worked with us on all of those.

Over the years, we have been very happy with the work that they do, and also extremely happy with the value that we get. I can only compare that with the cost of other types of services that you might be paying for in an acquisition. Nabarro, who are controlling most of what goes on and ensuring that everybody stays on the straight and narrow, provide very good value.

We rely on Nabarro to ensure that everything goes well. Clearly, when we have brokers involved and they’re raising money for us and doing circulars, Nabarro are our eyes and ears. They make sure everything’s OK for us and do a lot of the work, organising and ensuring that other people stand up to the mark and meet the timeframes that we're working to.

They’re easy to deal with, they are always available when you need them, and they put themselves out when you need them.

It's a relationship that you need, not just advice. You need your lawyers to understand the business, the people and the pressures you work under.

People here just take it for granted that we use Nabarro. Relationship sales continue unless one of two things change: if the people you deal with change significantly and you can’t relate to them then of course you reassess; if prices increase dramatically, you’d reassess. But if you get good levels of support and you believe you get value for money and you like working with the people, then why change?

We review our advisers as a matter of course every three years - the auditors, the lawyers, the banks. Nabarro has survived all of those reviews!

We don’t have to have a major issue to talk to Nabarro - that’s a good thing. And we don’t feel every time we pick up the phone we’re paying for it, which is important as well. We may well be paying for it, but we don’t feel that we’re paying for it!

One of the strengths of the relationship is that over the years we’ve never been let down by Nabarro. We’ve never thought - oh dear, Nabarro didn’t get that right. If they weren’t around, we’d miss the security of knowing that they’re there. Because you’d have to then uncover an alternative provider of the services, you’d have to build the relationship - that takes time. You’d have to verify that the advice you are getting is the right advice. You’d have to go through that whole proving cycle again.

The relationship is essential for us - it’s all about, do we trust the people we're talking to and do they understand what we’re trying to achieve.'