Market monitor

Alternative business structures are three times more likely than regular firms to offer “novel online solutions for clients wishing to access their services”, according to the Council for Licensed Conveyancers as we round up ABS news from up and down the country.

A new unregulated law firm is using unregistered barristers to offer small businesses “unlimited legal advice” for as little as £49.50 per month. Philip Harmer, founder of LawPlan, said the business “set out to give value, which seems like an impossibility in the legal world”.

Corporate clients are bleeding law firms without them realising it, as work is funnelled away to cheaper providers by in-house counsel who wish to avoid confrontation over pricing, according to a report. The steady process of commoditisation was behind the shift, it said.

An pioneering commercial law firm is offering computer coding training for its lawyers and clients to teach the emerging technology behind ‘smart’ contracts. The firm has also reported a growth in the recruitment of computer-literate lawyers who also have a scientific or technical background

Lawyer-led alternative business structures are leaving their rivals behind, the head of North West firm Jackson Canter has said. Executive chairman Andrew Holroyd was speaking as the firm announced the acquisition of Lees Solicitors, doubling its size to over 280 staff.

International firm Dentons is to launch what it describes as the first free global law firm referral network, with the aim of “changing the whole marketplace”. Meanwhile, LOD has claimed another first by launching an online marketplace for freelance lawyers.

A Bath-based legal services business run by two former managing partners of large firms – Withy King and CMS Cameron McKenna – has obtained an alternative business structure licence to bring regulated legal work in-house. OmniaLegal describes itself as a “legal services co-operative with a difference”.

There is a “climate of renewed vulnerability” among smaller law firms, with the vast majority of lawyers believing there are “still rough times ahead”, a report has found. The report also revealed a huge gulf between lawyer and client perceptions of value.

The founder of an unregulated law firm offering advice to SMEs has said there is a “massive space” for similar companies to move into the market. Robert Taylor, founder of Business Law Online, said small businesses wanted a “much more commercial” approach.

Slater & Gordon saw its share price double yesterday after its banks gave the alternative business structure breathing space to turn the business around. The firm said it considered the lenders’ agreement to change the terms of its borrowing to be “a positive and clear endorsement of the company’s performance improvement program”.