Legal Services Act

The Legal Services Board has strongly criticised the Solicitors Regulation Authority over failures in its enforcement work and IT systems – and also warned about the risk that the overhaul of the Handbook “may be too much” for firms and the regulator to cope with. However, the LSB said the legal regulators collectively had all made “substantial progress”.

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.

DAS Law – the alternative business structure set up by the eponymous legal expenses insurer – is launching a pioneering graduate academy for “lawyers of the future”, with the first six recruits starting next month. Staff numbers at the firm have doubled to around 220 since it was created in 2013.

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”.

The UK office of a major US law firm specialising in acting for men in divorce cases, is approaching its first anniversary with plans to expand into several UK cities. The Solicitors Regulation Authority initially “took an interest” in whether Cordell & Cordell discouraged women clients.

A company that provides valuation, sales and other services to dentists has added legal advice to its offering with the launch of an alternative business structure. The aim is to make FTA Law “the largest provider of legal services” to the dental profession.

Alternative business structures (ABS) make up just 4% of all solicitors’ firms but contributed 11% of the profession’s turnover, research has revealed. The Law Society’s annual statistical report, found ABSs were spread broadly across the different turnover bands, with around 50 of them having income in excess of £10m.