Alternative business structures

The Bar Standards Board is prepared to regulate entities that do not have any barrister owners, it decided last week. The shift comes shortly after the Solicitors Regulation Authority granted an alternative business structure licence to a chambers – the first without a solicitor owner.

The government has pledged to revisit the terms of the personal injury referral fee ban if it looks as though alternative business structures (ABSs) and other arrangements are being used to get around it.

The Legal Services Board has been critical of the length of the time the Solicitors Regulation Authority has taken to approve alternative business structures, it has emerged.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) will consider fast-tracking alternative business structure (ABS) applicants who want to bid for the government’s proposed criminal legal aid contracts, Legal Futures can reveal.

Manchester-headquartered alternative business structure Horwich Farrelly has headed south to launch an office in the City of London. The specialist insurance litigation law firm estimates that the new office will generate up to £2m of income in its first year.

Lender panels, rather than alternative business structures (ABSs), are the main threat to conveyancing businesses, new research has found. Interest among conveyancers in becoming an ABS also appears to be falling.

A not-for-profit venture capital business that promotes innovation is set to invest in a start-up law firm targeting the technology sector, Legal Futures can reveal. The unusually named Atypical Law Firm will this week submit its ABS application.

A London chambers has become the first alternative business structure licensed by the Solicitors Regulation Authority that does not have any solicitors. Richmond Chambers LLP is a niche immigration set that focuses on direct access work.

A new insurance business that will also offer wills, probate and family law services is set to go live after its law firm received an alternative business structure licence. It is the first insurance/law firm tie-up that does not involve personal injury claims.

The viability of using alternative business structures as a means to offer criminal legal services under the government’s price competitive tendering scheme is questionable, a report by consultants Deloitte has warned.