Market monitor

The rapid expansion of Riverview Law continued today with the announcement that it has opened its first international office in New York in a bid to give overseas businesses and law firms direct access to English barristers.

The first will-writer to be granted an alternative business structure (ABS) licence says she hopes others will follow suit so as to “level the playing field” with solicitors. Parchment Law Group became the seventh ABS last Friday.

A Buckinghamshire-based will-writing company has today become the latest recipient of an alternative business structure licence. Parchment Wills & Legal Services Ltd of Gerrards Cross is a founder member of the Institute of Professional Willwriters.

A niche property law firm in Oxfordshire has become the sixth alternative business structure to be licensed by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Its senior partner said becoming an ABS gives the firm “additional flexibility in terms of structuring our business”.

Co-operative Legal Services may look to acquire a conveyancing practice as it brings property work in-house, it revealed yesterday. The revelation came during a press briefing that laid out the Co-op’s strategy more clearly than ever before.

The Co-operative Group has today announced plans to create 3,000 jobs in the legal sector as it laid out its ambitions to create the largest consumer law business in the country. It will also offer face-to-face advice in all 330 of its bank branches.

Two junior barristers from Liverpool have launched a public access service which offers legal advice to consumers for a £150 fixed fee. It comes as a new fixed-fee ‘find a solicitor’ site seeks to target those who are just above the eligibility threshold for legal aid,

The Stobart Group – which yesterday made the surprise announcement of its intention to enter legal services – will today begin advertising its barrister-led offering, which aims to cut out the “waste” of instructing a solicitor separately.

Logistics business the Stobart Group – home of the famous Eddie Stobart truck fleet – has today launched a new service to link members of the public and businesses direct to a barrister without needing to employ a solicitor.

AIM-listed online conveyancing business In-Deed – which last year became the first business to announce its intention to invest in law firms – has today begun its acquisition programme after admitting that its direct-to-consumer model is not growing as quickly as hoped.

LegalZoom, the leading US online legal documents service, is to boost its plans to open in the UK this year with an initial public offering in New York that aims to raise $120m (£75m). LegalZoom said international expansion was one of the main reasons for going public.

A group of 15 law firms in Yorkshire and the north-east have joined forces with a specialist divorce coach and independent financial adviser to offer what they say is the first fixed-fee collaborative divorce service. There are plans to expand Dovetail Divorce Solutions across the country.

A leading insurance intermediary has agreed a £120m contract with the proposed alternative business structure (ABS) being put together by Quindell Portfolio. Quindell is awaiting SRA approval for its acquisition of Liverpool law firm Silverbeck Rymer.

The number of solicitor applications for a grant of probate has steadied after four years of decline and the profession should now target helping those who do it themselves, it was claimed yesterday.

Riverview Law has today launched a barrister-led service for high net-worth couples that it claims is the first to publish and guarantee the cost of divorce. The initial conference costs from £1,000 for a junior and £2,000 for a QC.