Market monitor

Slater & Gordon’s (S&G) new Linked to Law network will see cases going both ways between the alternative business structure and member firms, it has emerged.

A stripped-down telephone advice service for a single pre-payment fee of £45 was launched this week by legal entrepreneur Brad Askew. Naked Legal does not offer formal legal advice, nor does it refer clients who need that advice to lawyers.

Simpson Millar – the law firm acquired last month by AIM-listed Fairpoint Group – has begun making good on its promise to go on the acquisition trail by snapping up Bristol-based family law firm Foster & Partners.

The boutique media law firm that transformed itself into a multi-disciplinary alternative business structure specialising in high tech and legal reputation defence, is approaching the end of its first three-year phase of reform with profits “sky high”.

Law firm network Connect2Law is to live on separately from Slater & Gordon-owned Pannone after a deal struck with its former head, David Jabbari – with S&G launching its own referral network at the same time.

Alternative legal services provider Lawyers On Demand (LOD) has launched a Manchester ‘hub’, its first outside of London, in a bid to expand its ‘on site’ model of placing freelance lawyers into companies.

The alternative business structure owned by one of the UK’s largest debt management companies has launched with an ambition to expand into wills in the near future.

The AA – which research found recently to be the UK’s most trusted brand – has launched a conveyancing service in its first move since receiving an alternative business structure (ABS) licence in late 2013.

Flight compensation specialist Bott & Co is lining up a “series of similar niches” in the consumer world to capitalise on its successes with aviation, with a focus on IT, processes and client care.

Brilliant Law – the alternative business structure start-up backed by gambling millionaire Bert Black – has adopted a new name and new strategy as it bids to become a top-30 commercial firm within the next five years.

Leading retailer Greg Tufnell, new non-executive chairman of innovative legal practice Radiant Law, has told Legal Futures that changed expectations among clients over pricing is one of the key elements driving disruption in the legal market.

Quindell plc is on track to nearly double the number of staff working in its legal division to 1,500 this year as part of a plan that is seeing the alternative business structure target noise-induced deafness claims as a major growth area, it revealed this week.

Fairpoint Group plc has officially entered the legal market after the Solicitors Regulation Authority approved its £15m acquisition of national law firm and alternative business structure Simpson Millar.

Bates Wells Braithwaite, the charity law specialist, has claimed that its new ABS status will enable it to provide the first ‘unified service’ in the City. The firm’s non-legal services have been set up by accountant Jim Clifford, who is now an equity partner.

The British Printing Industries Federation, a trade association representing the UK’s print and packaging industry, has been awarded an ABS license, while a Hull-based employment, taxation, health and safety and environmental law service has also won ABS status.