Alternative business structures

Merger has been on the minds of three-quarters of large law firms during the past year, but inadequate preparation for the negotiations means few are seeing it through, new research into the 200 practices has claimed.

The Bar Standards Board is to regulate advocacy focused alternative business structures and allow barristers to conduct litigation, its board decided yesterday. However, it has placed significant restrictions on the range of entities it is prepared to regulate.

Manchester firm Pannone is to target big businesses with a white label legal services offering, it announced today. From next week it is pulling all of its white label services into a standalone and separately branded division – Affinity Solutions – to partner with organisations with a large customer base.

More than three-quarters of law firms have changed their plans to reflect the coming of alternative business structures, but firms seeking to attract investors will have to develop credible growth strategies. Neil Kinsella, managing partner of Russell Jones & Walker, said his firm had already begun to draw up a list of potential law firm acquisitions.

Irwin Mitchell today became the first major law firm to announce its intention to seek external investment. The Sheffield-headquartered national practice has appointed Espirito Santo Investment Bank as its financial adviser to review the options.

Customer experience will largely define the success of legal providers in the post Legal Services Act world, according to a survey of delegates at last week’s Legal Futures Conference. Understading the client is vital but doing it will be difficult for some firms, the survey found.

A new website called “We buy any files” is keen to acquire business from practices looking to shed personal injury work ahead of alternative business structures and the Jackson reforms. Meanwhile, a survey of consumers has highlighted dissatisfaction with the PI claims system, and leading legal expenses insurer DAS has hit back at yesterday’s report on BTE insurance.

New “dumbed-down” entrants to the personal injury market will be “quick and wrong”, whereas lawyers can be “quick and right”, the new president of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers has claimed. David Bott said claimants might prefer to deal with a “new breed of dumbed-down, legal ‘light’ adviser” – at least at first.

Doubts over whether alternative business structures (ABSs) will start on 6 October persist after justice minister Jonathan Djanogly today refused to confirm that they will happen on that day. “Quality is paramount and I will not shortcut a complicated process involving no less than a dozen parliamentary orders,” he said.

Lawyers around the world are watching to see how alternative business structures (ABS) work, giving UK law firms a possible competitive advantage if they can meet “unprecedented” client demand for value, Professor Richard Susskind told the Legal Futures Conference. He also said it was “unimaginable” that investors and entrepreneurs would ignore the opportunities presented by legal market.

QualitySolicitors is preparing to eject a member firm for failing to meet the network’s quality standards, its chief operating officer told the Legal Futures Conference yesterday. Law Society chief executive Des Hudson also questioned QS’s use of the word “quality” in the brand.

As the interest of law firms in external investment goes up, “the interest of funders seems to be firmly in decline”, a new alternative business structures consultancy has found. A survey of 51 of the top 200 law firms by ABS Advisory Partners found that 12% thought it “very likely” or “likely” that they will seek direct external investment.

Dragon’s Den stars Theo Paphitis and Deborah Meaden are backing a major online initiative to provide small business customers of RBS and NatWest with all the online tools they need to run their operations, including legal services.

The American Bar Association tonight floated the prospect of allowing limited forms of alternative business structures in the US. However, it has ruled out passive non-lawyer investment, laying out options which only involve non-lawyers actively contributing to a practice.

A memorandum of understanding between legal regulators and regulators and professional bodies in the financial, accountancy and property worlds whose members may be part of multi-disciplinary practices is close to agreement, it has emerged.