Alternative business structures

Admiral Insurance is “considering its options” over becoming an alternative business structure, chief executive Henry Engelhardt confirmed yesterday. He indicated that the company is waiting to see the final shape of the ban on referral fees.

Lawyers2you is to become the first legal network to take on London when it launches its first franchise in the east of the city shortly, Legal Futures can reveal. The news comes after it faced criticism in the press for an A-board it used in central Birmingham.

The board of the Solicitors Regulation Authority this week approved the third edition of the SRA Handbook since it went live last October, with a fourth one due before the end of June. The SRA said it recognised the disruption this would cause but argued that the updates have been unavoidable.

The Bar Standards Board has launched its final scheme for regulating advocacy-focused alternative business structures in what it described as a “declaration of intent” to become the regulator of choice for advocates.

A financial services group is to submit its stage two ABS licence application this week as it bids to add a legal practice to its portfolio, Legal Futures can reveal. It comes as the SRA reveals how many would-be ABSs have filed stage two applications.

A groundbreaking business law firm operating entirely on fixed fees and featuring a mix of leading barristers and solicitors opens today, aiming for a market that it claims has been “protected from real competition for too long”. LawVest also plans to become an ABS.

The claims management arm of telecoms giant BT has applied to become an alternative business structure, it has emerged. But it is not looking to enter the consumer market.

The private equity firm behind the UK’s first – and so far only – alternative business structure is beginning the hunt for another investment in the law, Legal Futures can reveal.

Large law firms are showing increasing interest in forming multi-disciplinary practices with non-lawyer professionals, according to new research. The survey of 126 of the top 250 firms by accountants Smith & Williamson found that a third are interested in joining with a non-legal practice.

Private equity firms are showing “considerable interest” in volume legal practices, the man behind Duke Street’s acquisition of the Parabis Group has said. The head of strategic projects at Irwin Mitchell claimed that most PE firms are considering investing in the law.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has so far received more alternative business structure applications than it expected, chief executive Antony Townsend admitted yesterday. He also suggested that there will in time be growing momentum towards consolidating the eight current legal regulators into one.

Duke Street has become the first private equity company to buy a legal practice after acquiring “a significant stake” in the Parabis Group, whose law firm Cogent Law sits behind both the AA and Saga’s legal services websites. It plans to turn Parabis into a business process outsourcer.

Slater & Gordon’s takeover of Russell Jones & Walker is evidence that law firms are “joining the real business world” and that there is realisable value in legal practices, leading consultants have said.

Our latest news round-up takes in an innovative partnership to combine financial, taxation and legal advice, an update on ABS applications, the role for ABSs in the conveyancing market, growing fraud claims against solicitors, support for provisional assessment, and new blood at the OLC.

Russell Jones & Walker aims to use its new access to capital to become one of the two or three players that will “dominate” the consumer legal market in the years to come, its chief executive has said.