Market monitor

A pioneering shared legal service providing advice to seven councils in the East Midlands is set to create the latest local authority alternative business structure.

The recent cash injection into Plexus Law is “an entirely different deal in entirely different circumstances” from its failed first foray into private equity backing, its chief executive has said.

The UK has been “dependent on the EU” for the liberalisation of legal services around the world and will struggle to match this post-Brexit, MPs have been warned.

The legal sector is “riddled with poverty pay and huge wage inequality and junior workers are bearing the brunt”, a trade union has claimed as it bids to attract members from across the legal sector

Last year saw solid real-terms growth for mid-sized law firms, with median growth of 4.2% the result of increased fee income rather than simply more fee-earners, new figures have shown.

The number of insolvencies among solicitors’ firms reached a new high last year, Insolvency Service figures have shown, and a funder has warned that ‘loan stacking’ will only make things worse.

Anexo Group, the AIM-listed credit hire and legal services business, announced annual results yesterday ahead of market expectations and declared its intention to keep growing the law firm it owns.

The Co-operative – now the UK’s largest provider of probate – recorded a 37% rise in turnover from legal services in 2018, and a 53% jump in profit. Meanwhile, Ince Gordon Dadds has bought another firm.

New-breed firm Carbon Law Partners has introduced a structure to help senior lawyers realise the economic value of their client base so they can retire, in a way that is not possible in traditional firms.

Gordon Dadds saw its share price rebound for its lowest ever point after announcing an agreement to work with five of the law firms that used to be part of the Ince & Co international network.