Legal Services Act

Our series catching up with the new breed of alternative business structures profiles Red Bar, the first start up ABS and a law firm offering early access to barristers, and how a no-nonsense approach to payment is aiding big expansion plans.

Bates Wells Braithwaite, the charity law specialist, has claimed that its new ABS status will enable it to provide the first ‘unified service’ in the City. The firm’s non-legal services have been set up by accountant Jim Clifford, who is now an equity partner.

The British Printing Industries Federation, a trade association representing the UK’s print and packaging industry, has been awarded an ABS license, while a Hull-based employment, taxation, health and safety and environmental law service has also won ABS status.

ABSs account for a third of all turnover in the personal injury market, the first accurate overview of the progress of alternative business structures has revealed.

Firms applying for alternative business structure (ABS) status believe the Solicitors Regulation Authority takes too long to approve applications and its staff are too “bureaucratic”, according to the regulator’s own research.

Alternative business structure Quindell plc has had to shelve its much-trumpeted plans for a full listing on the London Stock Exchange, the company admitted today. The news has further hit the AIM-listed company’s share price.

In the latest of our series profiling the new breed of alternative business structure, we speak to Red Square London, a law firm and multi-disciplinary family office that provides services mainly to wealthy Russian and Russian-speaking clients.

Sir Michael Pitt, the new chairman of the Legal Services Board, has said he took the job to “help change the legal services market”. He argued that “more change is needed” to deliver a better legal services market and better access to justice.

Plans by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills for improved data sharing between different regulators could be a “dead letter” if they are not applied to all of the legal regulators, the Legal Services Board has warned.

A parliamentary inquiry has called for a push to encourage people to make wills and that will-writers should inform all clients that they are able to leave money to charity in them.