Market monitor

Shopping centre legal brand Lawyers2you added London, Leeds and Manchester to its growing list of locations this week as it plans also to target some of the capital’s most popular markets and in time introduce video conferencing as well.

The residential conveyancing department of a Leicester law practice has left the firm to become an alternative business structure, while a sole practitioner targeting lender panels and a personal injury practice in Cheshire have also gained licences.

Prospective alternative business structure Quindell Portfolio plc – whose takeover of Liverpool law firm Silverbeck Rymer is awaiting approval – has more than £500m worth of new contracts under discussion, it revealed today.

A specialist public sector law firm is eyeing up external investment so as to fund expansion, as well as strategic partnerships with others to secure market share, after becoming the newest alternative business structure.

A Liverpool-based practice has become the first specialist family law firm to become an alternative business structure. Tracey Miller Family Law will use its new status to allow business development manager Anthony Hool to take a minority stake in the firm.

Two of the country’s best-known conveyancing practices have become alternative business structures, while an insolvency and litigation practice has also achieved ABS status.

Two of the UK’s first alternative business structures – Slater & Gordon and Co-operative Legal Services – have reported strong increases in income, although profits at the Co-op have been hit by its expansion plans.

Duke Street today became the first private equity firm to own part of a law firm after the Parabis Group received its alternative business structure licence, the twentieth so far issued by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

Irwin Mitchell has today become the largest law firm to become an alternative business structure and also received the first ‘multiple’ licences. In April 2011 the firm became the first to state its intention to seek external capital.

A 12-partner law firm with offices in Northampton and Milton Keynes has become the latest alternative business structure. Franklins Solicitors, which has 80 staff in all, provides a range of private client and commercial law services.

Alternative business structures are not a simple solution to circumvent the impending ban on referral fees, but referrers are starting to see real opportunities to enter the legal market themselves, a leading adviser has said.

Quindell Portfolio, the AIM-listed business awaiting approval for its takeover of Liverpool law firm Silverbeck Rymer, has completed yet another acquisition by buying a leading claims management company network.

A London property management company has become the first multi-disciplinary alternative business structure. Crabtree Property Management is also the first company to use the ABS structure to enter the legal services market.

One of the country’s leading non-solicitor probate providers will today be unveiled as the newest alternative business structure. Kings Court Trust has chosen to be regulated by the Council for Licensed Conveyancers.

An online legal document business from Canada is set to launch in the UK this month, starting with a will which it plans to promote through group buying websites like Groupon, Legal Futures can reveal.