Market monitor

New-model practice Carbon Law Partners is set to launch a ‘white label’ service to enable foreign law firms to practise in England and Wales under their own brand, without having to seek regulatory approval or professional indemnity insurance in their own right.

External investment rather than the number of alternative business structures is the key to changing the legal profession, a former president of the Law Society has said. Meanwhile, well-known ABS Knights has changed structure to retain more of its profit.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has licensed a unique Chinese-owned alternative business structure targeting Chinese companies looking to invest abroad. It has been set up in association with Exeter-headquartered law firm Michelmores.

National law firm Gateley is looking to raise £30m from its imminent listing on AIM, documents filed at the London Stock Exchange today have revealed. The firm is due to list on 8 June with a market capitalisation of £100m.

A family law practice that specialises in acting for men and has more than 100 offices across the US has opened in London with the prediction that it could “very quickly dominate the UK market”. It is already running radio advertisements announcing its arrival.

Manchester-based Linder Myers is heading back into profit little more than a year after escaping administration, its chief executive has said. Tony Stockdale, chairman of consultants Assure Law, helped secure a refinancing deal with RBS in March 2014.

A new venture that aims to “acquire, transform and aggregate” around 60 high street law firms over the next five years to create an alternative business structure with a turnover of more than £80m will shortly buy its first practice in a bid to prove the concept.

Slater & Gordon’s £637m acquisition of Quindell’s professional services division has cleared its final hurdle after regulatory approval was granted by the Financial Conduct Authority. The transaction is now unconditional and on track for completion “shortly”.

New-style legal businesses continue to make waves in the City, with Lawyers on Demand (LOD) reporting strong annual results and Excello Law forming the first international alliance between “new-model dispersed law firms”. Meanwhile, Keystone Law has made waves with a daring publicity stunt in one of London’s busiest train stations.

National law firm Gateley has already made presentations to 30 investment funds and has to convince them that it has learned the lessons of other professional services firms that have listed, the firm’s chief executive has told Legal Futures.

National law firm Gateley has today formally announced its intention to float on AIM, saying the “first mover advantage” it will gain by being the first listed law firm will provide “a platform to expand and diversify”.

National law firm Gateley has confirmed reports that work to become the first publicly listed law firm is underway after it appointed bankers to advise on a £130m float on AIM this summer.

Cambridgeshire financial advisers Beacon Wealth Management have used an alternative business structure to buy a local law firm. Tony Larkins, managing director of Beacon, said it had always been his aim to own a law firm and accountancy practice.

Fast-growing HCB Solicitors and Chartered Accountants has announced the purchase of three more law firms this week as it closes in on its ambition to have national coverage. They take its national tally of offices to 26 and staff to around 350.

Leading marketing collective First4Lawyers – which has hitherto focused exclusively on personal injury and clinical negligence cases – has expanded into six other areas of consumer law in a major new push supported by more than 2,000 television advertisements a month.