Legal Services Act

Silverbeck Rymer may not be the last law firm acquired by Quindell Portfolio as it targets rapid growth to achieve a 15-20% share of the personal injury market over the next year, the AIM-listed company’s chief executive has told Legal Futures.

Admiral Insurance is “considering its options” over becoming an alternative business structure, chief executive Henry Engelhardt confirmed yesterday. He indicated that the company is waiting to see the final shape of the ban on referral fees.

An innovative legal outsourcing business that uses former City solicitors to provide law firms and in-house departments with temporary support is set for a massive expansion, aiming to grow from 60 to 500 by the end of the year.

Leading defendant insurance law firm Keoghs has confirmed that it is exploring opportunities to raise external funding. Reports in the north-west suggest that private equity firm Bowmark Capital is in exclusive talks to take a stake in the business.

The first facility giving library users access to a free consultation with a lawyer via video-link launched in the heart of London yesterday, with both solicitors and barristers now supporting the concept.

Lawyers must provide clearer pricing information to their clients or risk losing out to new entrants to the market, the Legal Ombudsman (LeO) has warned. LeO today issued a report on the problems issues around cost causes consumers, accounting for up to a quarter of all of its investigations.

Providing immigration advice and services may need to become a reserved legal activity, the Legal Services Board has suggested. It found that there is likely to be “significant consumer detriment” in the way this work is being regulated at the moment.

The government has welcomed the first common framework to measure the progress of social mobility within the professions, which was launched last Friday. The social mobility toolkit was published by Professions for Good.

Lawyers2you is to become the first legal network to take on London when it launches its first franchise in the east of the city shortly, Legal Futures can reveal. The news comes after it faced criticism in the press for an A-board it used in central Birmingham.

The board of the Solicitors Regulation Authority this week approved the third edition of the SRA Handbook since it went live last October, with a fourth one due before the end of June. The SRA said it recognised the disruption this would cause but argued that the updates have been unavoidable.

The Legal Education and Training Review needs to be radical and permanently separate authorisation to practise from professional titles, the chairman of the Legal Services Board said this week.

Merger and acquisition activity is becoming a far greater strategic priority among the largest law firms, new research has shown – although most still remain wary of alternative business structures. It also highlighted how top firms are being forced to offer fixed fees.

The government is planning to slash unnecessary red tape around the regulation of legal services, it has emerged. The Red Tape Challenge – a government-wide initiative to cut the 21,000 regulations currently in force in the UK – will spotlight legal services in June.

The Bar Standards Board has launched its final scheme for regulating advocacy-focused alternative business structures in what it described as a “declaration of intent” to become the regulator of choice for advocates.

Large law firms should consider structures that allow them “to trade in the substantial value of their businesses”, a corporate advisory firm claimed yesterday. Europa Partners said that six of the top ten by value large enough to be included in the FTSE 100 if they were listed.