Legal Services Act

A regional law firm based in Peterborough has taken on the big referral networks by setting up a niche scheme of its own. BUCKLESconnect, launched this month, specialises in advice on French and Spanish law, planning and construction, and contentious probate.

Only a change in the law would allow the Legal Ombudsman to cover complaints from consumers of unregulated law firms, the chair of the organisation’s governing body has said as he called on paralegals to campaign for access to the redress scheme.

The evidence to date has not backed up the critics of alternative business structures, the American Bar Association has said as it announced it is to revisit the merits of allowing them just three years after its last investigation kept the door firmly closed.

The Lifetime Group has become the latest financial services business to add legal advice to its offering by gaining an alternative business structure. Meanwhile, Metamorph Law – which last year announced plans to “acquire, transform and aggregate” high street law firms – has received its ABS licence.

The flexible benefits scheme that saw Legal Ombudsman staff effectively paid hundreds of thousands of pounds on top of their salaries in the organisation’s first six years – until the government deemed the payments to be irregular – has been scrapped.

Law firm network QualitySolicitors yesterday announced a greater focus on lead conversion, along with a change in leadership to drive it. CEO Eddie Ross is to leave next month and be replaced by Ben Greco, managing director of property services firm Move with Us.

The Legal Services Board (LSB) has ditched plans to examine what it could do to enhance consumer protection for those who use unregulated providers, it revealed yesterday. The result of the consultation on its draft business plan also revealed a significant cut in the LSB’s research spend, delivering an extra £150,000 reduction in its overall 2016/17 budget.

A DIY legal guidance and forms website set up by two Korean solicitors and aimed at overseas SMEs and start-ups setting up businesses in the UK, is to launch later this year. LawXero is an unregulated platform which styles itself as “a flexible online legal information and guidance station for smart businesses looking to establish a UK presence”.

Gateley has made its first acquisition as a listed company, using shares to finance part of the £2.7m purchase of specialist tax incentives advisory business Capitus. The business, which is to be renamed Gateley Capitus, made a £593,000 profit on a £1.38m turnover in its last financial year.

A new not-for-profit personal injury marketing collective with 20 law firms stumping up £600,000 each to create a £12m budget is set to go live shortly in a bid to disrupt the market. The collective has been put together with well-known legal digital marketing agency mmadigital.