Legal Services Act

The legal outsourcing business that uses former City solicitors to provide temporary support services to law firms and in-house teams, has surpassed its original goal of having 500 lawyers on its books and grown 400% in the past year.

Legal Services Board should be focusing on the way the chairs of the frontline regulators are appointed, not on ensuring they are non-lawyers, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has said.

Alternative business structures (ABSs) that are keen to grow by acquisition have failed to make the strides they expected because of the problems of dealing with traditional law firms, it has been claimed.

Changes in the legal market since the Legal Services Act will accelerate, with competition from new providers and cuts in legal aid leading to a “tragic but inevitable” end for non-specialist high street firms, according to the politician who shepherded the Act through Parliament.

An alternative business structure (ABS) licence is the next stage of the evolution of well-known media law firm Wiggin into a media business “of which law is a central cog but not the be all and end all”, its chief executive has explained.

The largest consumer law firm in the US is set to mount a bid to build a trusted national legal brand in the UK, potentially recruiting thousands of lawyers and with a global marketing budget of tens of millions of dollars.

The problems with the Co-operative Bank will not have an impact on the growth of Co-operative Legal Services, its director of policy said yesterday. The assertion came as the SRA published guidance highlighting the risks of ‘group contagion’ in the legal market.

One of the early pioneers in online legal services has relinquished her practising certificate in favour of working full-time for the web-based business she has built up over the past 12 years.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has imposed a series of conditions on AA Law that aim to control the relationship between the law firm and the breakdown giant’s insurance and claims-handling operations.

Protectionism among the mainland European bars is unlikely to stop determined UK-based alternative business structures from entering their markets, with various avenues open to them, according to new research.

The process of approving alternative business structures seems to be weighted against multi-disciplinary practices and business services firms, it has been claimed. The Legal Services Board also expressed concern over the impact on ABS licensing of senior departures from the SRA.

An innovative London-based business law network is targeting employment law in a bid to expand its global client base. Transatlantic Law International (TALI) has member firms in 80 countries around the world, with Reading firm Boyes Turner its English representative.

Over-50s specialist Saga has today been granted an alternative business structure (ABS) licence to launch a joint venture law firm with fellow ABS Parabis Law. It aims to rebalance a market that “appears to be stacked in favour of the provider rather than the consumer”.

The AA will next month launch its own law firm after being granted an alternative business structure licence by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. AA Law will start trading on 1 December as a joint venture between the motoring giant and national firm Lyons Davidson

Many of the UK’s leading law firms need to “radically” restructure this businesses if they are to survive, PwC warned today. It also revealed that almost a quarter of the top 100 have reported material rule breaches to the Solicitors Regulation Authority this year.