Market monitor

Slater & Gordon has announced that it is taking legal action against Watchstone Group – formerly Quindell – over its £637m purchase of Quindell’s professional services division last year. At the start of 2016 S&G unveiled a massive write-down of goodwill arising from the acquisition.

Listed law firm Gateley has continued its acquisition of complementary businesses by spending up to £2m to buy a firm of surveyors that will work alongside its property practice. Hamer Associates specialises in easements and wayleaves, and compulsory purchase and compensation.

The transformation of AIM-listed Fairpoint Group into a legal services business continued apace in the first six months of 2016, its half-year results showed yesterday. Revenue increased by 24% to £28.3m in the period, of which £21.5m was from legal services, nearly twice as much as a year before. Profits were steady at £4m.

Lawyers need to embrace innovation to find new ways of delivering services and simplifying working practices, the government and senior judiciary said today as they unveiled their vision for the digital transformation of the justice system. The £1bn plan includes the prospect of people being convicted online for minor offences, and plans for fixed fees across as much of the civil system as possible.

One of the first local authority alternative business structures is projected to increase its turnover 30% over the next year, and has already cut the fee rates for its shareholder clients by 20%, it revealed yesterday. LGSS Law is now also advising more than 100 client organisations within the public and not-for-profit sectors.

Four in ten managing partners at leading law firms see alternative providers such as the Big Four accountants and insurers as the biggest threat to the legal profession, according to a survey published today. It also found firms more likely to see growth coming from investment in technology and hiring teams, rather than mergers.

Four law firms have joined forces to launch Collaborative Employment Law (CEL), a group aiming to bring a novel mediated approach to employment disputes as an alternative to litigation, modelled on a technique developed by family lawyers.

The legal market is set for a “second wave” of external investment, a leading corporate financier said today, describing it as “an inevitable snowball that is gathering pace”. He identified several markets – from criminal law to large commercial firms – where there were opportunities for investors.

One-time network Connect2Law has been reborn as an alternative business structure that has acquired leading referral business Contact Law, Legal Futures can reveal. It is part of a strategy to establish C2L as “the UK’s leading provider of branded consumer legal services” on behalf of businesses entering the legal market.

Well-known recovery specialist Leonard Curtis has today launched an alternative business structure to create a multi-disciplinary offering to businesses in financial distress. The solicitor founder said his experience to date showed how accountants were much better at being SMEs’ ‘trusted adviser’ than law firms.