Market monitor

The co-founder of PayPal has invested in a start-up that aims to help clients find lawyers and then collaborate with them through an online platform – and is targeting the UK in the next few months – Legal Futures can reveal.

A Manchester law firm has launched a joint venture alternative business structure (ABS) with one of its major insurer clients. Meanwhile, the transitional exemption from ABS licensing currently afforded to not-for-profit organisations has been extended indefinitely.

Neil Hudgell Solicitors, the law firm which two years ago launched the website ‘Webuyanyfiles’ targeted at personal injury firms looking to exit the market, has formed a joint venture with national practice Simpson Millar to expand the offering.

Liverpool law firm Camps has launched a new consumer brand – Your Legal Friend – as part of its “multi-channel” response to the personal injury market. It said the launch follows research to ensure the brand reflects both what the company stands for and delivers what its customers most value.

Brilliant Law, the alternative business structure that was set up with investment from BetFair founder Bert Black, has just received a further seven-figure cash injection. One of the new investors, lawyer turned investment banker Jag Mundi, has also joined as a non-executive director.

Tooks Chambers – the civil liberties set led by campaigning QC Michael Mansfield – has today announced that it has begun the process of dissolution as a “direct result of the government’s policies on legal aid”.

The trust that solicitors engender among their clients should be leveraged, with other services operating under legal professionals’ banner within alternative business structures, according to the head of one of the newest ABSs.

An alternative business structure with access to clients with assets of more than £13bn has been launched by the Country Gentlemen’s Association, whose members who are mainly landowners, farmers, and retired military personnel.

The strategic alliance between Riverview Law and DMH Stallard has borne its first fruit, with the pair promising to handle mergers and acquisitions of any size on a fixed fee.

Slater & Gordon yesterday launched its first UK television advertising campaign as it bids to become “a household name”. Costing more than £1m in the launch phase, the firm used M&C Saatchi to create a series of adverts, starting with one on personal injury.

The country’s first alternative business structure and largest conveyancing business revealed strong annual results yesterday. Premier Property Lawyers – which became an ABS on 6 October 2011 – is part of My Home Move, which also has a panel management operation.

Capita, the outsourcing giant that yesterday announced plans to buy a law firm, remains on the acquisition trail and is also looking for a top-20 law firm to partner with, Legal Futures can report.

Outsourcing giant Capita plc has reached a conditional agreement to acquire Optima Legal Services pending the grant of an alternative business structure licence.

New business structures are more productive and innovative than traditional law firms, Legal Services Board research has found. It also said that alternative business structures are “starting to have an impact” on some parts of the market and collectively have a 5% market share.

Jordans – the business known for company formation services and publishing legal textbooks – now has a corporate law firm after receiving its alternative business structure licence.