Market monitor

Slater & Gordon recorded a profit after tax of nearly £20m on turnover of £128m from its UK operation in the last financial year, its audited results have shown. The first month of Slater Gordon Solutions (SGS) – the new name for the professional services division acquired from Quindell – brought in £17m of income, at a net loss of £2.1m.

One of the country’s leading local government innovators has told his council that “in future, we will no longer have a legal business that happens to use technology. Instead, it will be a digital business that happens to do law”. He also said that public sector lawyers have a “greater duty than most” to address the country’s access to justice deficit.

Bates Wells & Braithwaite has become the first UK law firm to gain ‘B Corporation’ certification to mark its social and environmental performance, and as part of the process had to amend its LLP deed to provide that the firm is not just run for the benefit of the partners.

National Accident Helpline today reported strong first-half results as it looks for further acquisitions in both the personal injury and conveyancing markets. The AIM-listed legal marketing business said revenue was up 15% to £25.4m for the first six months of 2015, with operating profit increasing 21% to £6.5m.

US firm Cooley – which launched in the UK at the start of the year – has become the latest to make a play for the UK technology start-up market by introducing a British version of its online resource centre, including free legal documents.

A pioneering business services company that was one of the first in the world to sell corporate information online has launched an alternative business structure, with ambitions to add a range of legal services to its offering.

Leading accountancy firm Kingston Smith has become the first alternative business structure (ABS) to switch regulators after being granted a licence by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

Improving market conditions saw Gateley record revenue growth of 11.5% and profits up 32% in its last financial year, the listed law firm told the stock exchange today. Becoming a public company is helping to differentiate the firm, improve its profile and aid recruitment, it also told investors.

Structures are “far from being as central to the success of a modern set as their proponents suggest”, the joint heads of the newly merged Drystone Chambers have argued. Karim Khalil QC and Andrew Campbell-Tiech QC also suggested that mergers between competing sets stored up problems for the future.

Irwin Mitchell has said it is “not involved” in discussions with private equity firm Duke Street to buy part of the Parabis Group, contrary to reports in the Sunday Times. The group admitted today that it has held “discreet discussions with other like-minded businesses” as it considered options to restructure its business.