Alternative business structures

Nearly one in five criminal and family barristers are considering joining alternative business structures with non-lawyer owners and four out of ten plan to apply, or are thinking of applying, for authorisation to conduct litigation, according to a major survey.

Fairpoint Group plc has officially entered the legal market after the Solicitors Regulation Authority approved its £15m acquisition of national law firm and alternative business structure Simpson Millar.

Our series catching up with the new breed of alternative business structures profiles Red Bar, the first start up ABS and a law firm offering early access to barristers, and how a no-nonsense approach to payment is aiding big expansion plans.

Bates Wells Braithwaite, the charity law specialist, has claimed that its new ABS status will enable it to provide the first ‘unified service’ in the City. The firm’s non-legal services have been set up by accountant Jim Clifford, who is now an equity partner.

The British Printing Industries Federation, a trade association representing the UK’s print and packaging industry, has been awarded an ABS license, while a Hull-based employment, taxation, health and safety and environmental law service has also won ABS status.

ABSs account for a third of all turnover in the personal injury market, the first accurate overview of the progress of alternative business structures has revealed.

Firms applying for alternative business structure (ABS) status believe the Solicitors Regulation Authority takes too long to approve applications and its staff are too “bureaucratic”, according to the regulator’s own research.

In the latest of our series profiling the new breed of alternative business structure, we speak to Red Square London, a law firm and multi-disciplinary family office that provides services mainly to wealthy Russian and Russian-speaking clients.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has slashed its backlog of ABS licensing applications from 142 in January 2013 to 52 in April this year, it has emerged. The average age of work-in-progress ABS applications is now three months.

In the third part of our series in which we catch up on the progress of the new breed of alternative business structures (ABSs), we speak to Castle Park Solicitors, which was the first ABS to be created by a legal advice charity.