UHY Hacker Young joins Escalate dispute resolution platform

UHY Hacker Young in the North West, one of the region’s leading accountancy firms, has become the latest professional services business to join Escalate, the ground-breaking commercial dispute resolution process for SMEs.

The addition of the UHY Hacker Young team in Manchester means that Escalate has further strengthened its geographic footprint across the North West, where it already has an on-the-ground presence via law firm Bermans.

Escalate helps SMEs to achieve a prompt settlement to a wide range of commercial disputes, with fixed fees payable only on a successful outcome and no upfront costs. The Escalate process has won four prestigious national awards: ‘Innovation of the Year’ at the British Accountancy Awards 2017, ‘Best Collaboration Initiative’ at the Lawyer Awards 2018, ‘Excellence in Business Development’ at the Law Society Excellence Awards 2018, and ‘Legal Services Innovation Award’ at The British Legal Awards 2018.

UHY Hacker Young and Escalate working together to help the SME community in the North West

Chris Clay, Managing Director of Escalate, said: “Escalate’s mission is to help the SME community so that the £40 billion that’s written off each year as bad debt is reduced. In our view, a bad debt is just a commercial dispute that didn’t get resolved.

“With UHY Hacker Young on board, we’re able to give more SMEs in the North West access to justice through a smarter alternative to the traditional dispute resolution process.

“We’re already helping SMEs to recover more than £50 million that is currently locked up in commercial disputes.  The combination of UHY Hacker Young and Bermans in the North West enables us to help even more businesses in the region with their cashflow.”

David Kendrick, Partner at UHY Hacker Young in Manchester, said: “The traditional dispute resolution model has been heavily stacked against SMEs for a long time, and we’re keen to be part of the solution. 

“Escalate provides SMEs with an innovative means of securing the resources they need to survive and grow – it’s proven to make a real difference for its clients. I’m looking forward to using Escalate to help our clients with the inevitable bumps in the road that all successful businesses encounter.”