Alternative business structures

Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) plans to issue guidance on the financial penalties it will impose on alternative business structures (ABSs) and those working in them are premature, the Law Society has claimed.

There will be close scrutiny on the Solicitors Regulation Authority to ensure that alternative business structures (ABSs) tying insurers and solicitors together prioritise their duties to injured people, the regulator was warned yesterday.

The Legal Services Board is to keep the performance of the Solicitors Regulation Authority in issuing alternative business structure licences under scrutiny, it has emerged. We have discovered that in January it issued a statutory notice requiring the SRA to provide information.

A majority of consumers would consider buying legal services from big brands, but publicity around alternative business structures and new ways to access the law over the past two years has not increased their appetite, research has indicated.

The Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) has confirmed it will again attempt to extend the scope of services it regulates later this year and fired the opening shot of a campaign to issue licenses to individuals who are not conveyancers.

A solicitor and a barrister have joined forces in a start-up alternative business structure (ABS) that will service construction sector clients and has ambitions to employ a range of professionals associated with the building industry.

Personal injury firm Proddow Mackay has launched three alternative business structure (ABS) joint ventures in a bid to change strategy following the referral fee ban as Vamco, the first accident management company to become an ABS, has signed a deal with a large broker.

The role of alternative business structures (ABSs) in helping law firms and others bid for new legal aid ‘super-contracts’ in criminal work was highlighted by the government yesterday as part of radical plans to slash the number of providers by three-quarters.

The first accountancy firm to be granted an alternative business structure (ABS) licence has said it won’t “shoot itself in the foot” by entering the legal market – just yet. Price Bailey has created a legal services business which has been given approval by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

Cardiff firm NewLaw Solicitors has secured its second joint venture alternative business structure (ABS) in a week after teaming up with fleet management company FMG, Legal Futures can reveal. It follows on from its deal with insurer Ageas.