Legal Services Act

Duke Street today became the first private equity firm to own part of a law firm after the Parabis Group received its alternative business structure licence, the twentieth so far issued by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

Government plans to give the Legal Services Board powers to raid the premises of frontline regulators and seize documents have been strongly criticised for their lack of safeguards and inadequate protection of legal professional privilege.

Elisabeth Davies was yesterday reappointed as chair of the Legal Services Consumer Panel. The decision to keep Ms Davies in the role will keep the panel’s wide-ranging workplan on track.

The process of enabling chartered legal executives to set up their own practices has begun with their regulator looking for the power to award them rights to conduct litigation, conveyancing and probate without needing the supervision of a solicitor.

Irwin Mitchell has today become the largest law firm to become an alternative business structure and also received the first ‘multiple’ licences. In April 2011 the firm became the first to state its intention to seek external capital.

The publication of complaints data will be “imperfect”, the Chief Legal Ombudsman has admitted, but it is better than publishing nothing at all and is emphatically not about naming and shaming lawyers.

A 12-partner law firm with offices in Northampton and Milton Keynes has become the latest alternative business structure. Franklins Solicitors, which has 80 staff in all, provides a range of private client and commercial law services.

Alternative business structures are not a simple solution to circumvent the impending ban on referral fees, but referrers are starting to see real opportunities to enter the legal market themselves, a leading adviser has said.

Quindell Portfolio, the AIM-listed business awaiting approval for its takeover of Liverpool law firm Silverbeck Rymer, has completed yet another acquisition by buying a leading claims management company network.

A London property management company has become the first multi-disciplinary alternative business structure. Crabtree Property Management is also the first company to use the ABS structure to enter the legal services market.

Hundreds of law firms have been sent details of the complaints information that the Legal Ombudsman is set to publish about them, Legal Futures has learned. However, it is still not clear when it will actually be published, after the July target was missed.

The advent of huge amounts of “unthinking external capital into the fragile ecosystem of the legal profession” could create many unforeseen and irreversible effects among City law firms, a well-known consultant has warned.

One of the country’s leading non-solicitor probate providers will today be unveiled as the newest alternative business structure. Kings Court Trust has chosen to be regulated by the Council for Licensed Conveyancers.

Ian Dodd of the Bar Consultancy Network responds to our article earlier this week on the apparent disappearance of the ProcureCo concept a little over two years after the Bar Council launched it with great fanfare.

An online legal document business from Canada is set to launch in the UK this month, starting with a will which it plans to promote through group buying websites like Groupon, Legal Futures can reveal.