Legal Services Act

Top 20 accountancy firm Kingston Smith is expanding its commercial law services, the firm’s new head of legal services has said. Meanwhile, City firm Bates Wells Braithwaite, which became an alternative business structure last year to bring in an accountant to provide non-legal services, is evolving into a firm of business advisers, its managing partner said.

Real separation of representative and regulatory functions at organisations like the Law Society and Bar Council is “unfinished business” of the Legal Services Act, according to the woman who led the society’s negotiations with the government in the run-up to the Act.

There are positive signs about improving consumer satisfaction with how they find, compare and then use law firms, major research by the Legal Services Consumer Panel has revealed. However, the panel said more vulnerable consumers “are potentially being left behind as those more empowered are able to take advantage of market changes”.

The Law Society is set to review its governance structure as part of a new strategy set against a background of a legal market which it said by 2020 would see more and faster consolidation among law firms, changing employment practices and an increased number of “diverse business models”.

A firm of quantity surveyors, based in a country mansion in Warwickshire, is setting up an alternative business structure in the coach house. Solicitor Warren Berwick said clients needed a “clear distinction”.

The Parabis Group – the first law firm to be bought by a private equity business – is on the verge of being broken up, two months after problems first emerged. Meanwhile, England cricket captain Alistair Cook has helped launch a drop-in centre at Slater & Gordon’s flagship Manchester office.

A probe into what impact post-Legal Services Act competition has had on the cost of legal services has been launched. The Legal Services Board said that understanding changes in prices over time was one of the “key measures of the impacts of regulatory reforms designed to promote competition”.

The slow pace of change in the legal profession means it is “not surprising” to see new types of firms, with completely different business models, winning market share, an authoritative survey has found, adding that “the market is ripe for change”.

There are “no strong brands yet” to advise small businesses on legal services and law firms tend to “look the same”, Mark Edwards, vice president and general manager of Rocket Lawyer UK, has said. Mr Edwards said innovation was “not happening as much as it should be” in the legal market.

The ‘Big Four’ accountants are proving “intense competition” for mid-tier law firms and “quietly” taking the more commoditised work away from them, the head of legal services at RBS has said, predicting that the accountants will move on to compete with bigger firms.

Kathryn Stone, a police complaints commissioner, is to become chief ombudsman at the Legal Ombudsman in January next year. The appointment comes at a time when new figures put LeO under further pressure from the Legal Services Board over deteriorating performance against its targets.

Counterculture Partnership, a multi-disciplinary practice with one lawyer among 11 partners, has become an alternative business structure. Solicitor Keith Arrowsmith said clients liked the fact that it was an ABS and was under strict rules on confidentiality.

The number of complaints about claims management companies received by the Legal Ombudsman in the first six months of this year has hit almost 9,000 – a far higher amount than expected. However the number actually investigated was lower than predicted.

A lawyer-matching service originally designed for tech start-ups and SMEs has secured a second, much larger cash injection of £850,000 from a range of investors led by e-commerce specialist Forward Partners. Ih-house lawyers at large companies are now using the service to save money.

The one-time Chief Legal Ombudsman, Adam Sampson, has hit back at his former employer’s version of his departure, telling MPs that it included statements that “risk accusations of misleading Parliament”. He said claims that he was dismissed from his post were “simply untrue”.