Legal Services Act

The prospect of chartered legal executives setting up their own law firms moved closer to reality yesterday after their regulator submitted an application for the full range of independent practice rights. It has won immediate support from a Conservative MP.

Two niche law firms have outlined their hopes for expansion after receiving their alternative business structure licences from the Solicitors Regulation Authority. One specialises in family law – and owns the divorcesolicitor.com domain – and the other operates in health care.

The trend towards ‘unbundling’ legal services is gathering pace, with a Yorkshire law firm launching a ‘Pay as You Go’ service for family law clients who will no longer be eligible for legal aid after 1 April.

The biggest brand name to enter legal services and one of the country’s first alternative business structures, Co-operative Legal Services, has announced strong revenue growth for 2012. It would place CLS at 76th in The Lawyer magazine’s table of the top 100 law firms by turnover.

Banning referral fees in personal injury may have unintended consequences that will be worse than the current situation, Legal Services Board chairman David Edmonds told MPs yesterday. He also said the current regulatory regime could move rapidly to a single over-arching regulator.

Just one in eight small businesses believe that lawyers provide a cost-effective solution to legal problems, new research has found. The finding suggests far larger unmet legal need among SMEs than among the general public.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has outlined the three key financial ‘warning signs’ against which it will assess firms’ financial stability as a key element of its supervisory work over the next year. It is also to end the need for firms to submit an annual report on non-material rule breaches.

A lawyer-backed service that assists divorcing couples during mediation, charging fixed fees to halve the cost for clients, is being billed as a possible lifeline for family legal aid lawyers after 1 April. It came as the Law Society president urged solicitors to explore ‘unbundling’ legal services.

There is “a compelling moral and economic case” for the Legal Services Board to pursue initiatives such as an NHS Direct-style telephone service to help people find the legal advice they need, its consumer adviser has urged.

A virtual firm that is looking to share profits with its consultants and a leading personal injury practice have become the latest alternative business structures. Scott Moncrieff & Associates, known as Scomo, was founded by Law Society president Lucy Scott-Moncrieff.

Law firm networking brand HighStreetLawyer.com will look to become an alternative business structure in the future to finance ambitious growth plans. Managing director Gary Yantin said the focus for the next 12 months is to grow its number of member firms.

Nearly a fifth of the north-west’s specialist personal injury law firms are considering shutting up shop due to the financial impact of the government’s civil costs reforms, with many predicting huge cuts in their profitability as a result of the new RTA portal fees, new research has revealed.

Two Manchester solicitors have set up an alternative business structure (ABS) with the backing of a private investor to provide commercial services on fixed fees and retainers. Other new licencees include QualitySolicitors Talbots and midlands law firm Wright Hassall.

The number of in-house lawyers has not been affected by the economic crisis and alternative business structures (ABSs) offer general counsel an opportunity to expand their services, according to the Law Society.

Legal aid cuts, the Jackson reforms and the introduction of competitive tendering for criminal law work will split the Bar into a two-tier profession, with mid-sized generalist chambers set to suffer, a specialist Bar consultant has predicted.