Alternative business structures

The first Polish-owned, Polish-speaking alternative business structure opened for business at the start of this month – with the help of a British solicitor. Optimal Solicitors started life as a claims management company before converting.

Slater & Gordon has moved to dispel any doubts about the wisdom of its acquisition of Quindell’s professional services division (PSD), emphasising the work it put into going over the books. It also revealed that the PSD will operate as a standalone division.

The rule which requires the Solicitors Regulation Authority to approve the individuals who own companies that in turn own alternative business structures is set to be scrapped. The requirement for firms to keep a record of non-material breaches of the SRA Handbook may also go.

Insurance giant Markel has laid out its plans to rapidly expand LHS Solicitors, an alternative business structure which combines the law firm and legal helpline it bought last year as part of its acquisition of Abbey Protection Group plc.

Cahill Gordon & Reindel, based in New York, has become the first US firm to set up an alternative business structure in the UK, Legal Futures can reveal. Its head of legal practice is Richard Kelly, a London-based partner.

Co-operative Legal Services (CLS) stemmed its losses in the second half of 2014 and remains a core part of the wider Co-operative Group, today’s annual results have revealed. While the group has returned to profit, CLS recorded a loss of £5m for the year.

A new local authority alternative business structure is targeting the health sector as one of its main growth areas. Its head said that with “no traditional partnership structure or expensive offices, our fees are very, very competitive compared with specialist private sector law firms”.

Institutional investors have snapped up new shares in Slater & Gordon to fund its purchase of Quindell’s professional services division, it announced overnight. Around 70% of the £637m initial purchase price – £456m – is being funded through new shares, with the rest through bank debt.

A personal injury claims mediation business, an American law firm and one of the largest local authority shared legal services in the country are among the latest alternative business structures to be licensed by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

The University of Law has become the first academic institution to be granted an alternative business structure licence by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. ULaw said the licence will allow it to expand its legal advice clinic at the Bloomsbury branch in London.

A business offering unregulated legal services and HR consultancy is to launch an alternative business structure (ABS) to add reserved areas of law done in-house to its extensive menu of employment and HR advice.

Fairpoint Group plc – which last year bought two law firms – said today that its financial success in 2014 has laid the foundations for further acquisitions. The AIM-listed business hitherto focused on ‘debt solutions’.

Nottingham Law School, the first in the country to apply for an alternative business structure (ABS) licence, aims to offer young entrepreneurs a paid-for business advice service, it has emerged.

A partner at a small West London firm has taken ‘niche’ to a new level by specialising in litigation resulting from the first few turbulent years of digital currency bitcoin.

Nottingham Law School, part of Nottingham Trent University, has applied to the Solicitors Regulation Authority for an alternative business structure licence that would allow it to create a “teaching law firm”.