Legal Services Act

Edward Hands & Lewis, a Leicester-based law firm with 15 branches, is planning to launch a national network of franchised offices next year. Its senior partner said: “I’m a passionate believer in the high street solicitor, and I would love to see our brand in every high street. This is the best way to do it.”

Fairpoint Group plc – the AIM-listed company that owns national law firm Simpson Miller – has today appointed joint administrators and announced its intention to leave the stock exchange, but stressed that its legal business will continue to trade as a going concern due to its separate funding.

The group that owns London law firm Gordon Dadds today became the second listed law firm after the shareholders of what was Work Group plc yesterday approved the reverse takeover. The new company was admitted to trading on AIM today, with Gordon Dadds chief executive Adrian Biles owning 26.7% of the shares in issue.

National law firm Simpson Millar has insisted that it is “business as usual” after its listed parent copany, Fairpoint Group, announced its intention to appoint administrators. Last month, the group announced that its debt had been sold on and that a £5m funding facility had been provided to the legal services business.

The Chief Legal Ombudsman is to leave her post, it has been announced – just days after the government praised the work she has done to revive the standing of her organisation and a few weeks after the service’s chief executive said he was leaving too.

The government indicated today that it will not go ahead with plans to completely separate legal regulators from their linked professional bodies, such as the Solicitors Regulation Authority and Law Society. It came in a review of the Legal Services Board and Office for Legal Complaints that found both “generally operating efficiently and effectively”.

The findings from the Legal Services Consumer Panel’s latest tracker survey that people are generally satisfied with their lawyers does not detract from the concerns over their lack of shopping around before choosing one, the panel has said. “Those who access the service are satisfied, but what about those who can’t?” it said.

The legal services market is “at a standstill”, with consumers still relying “too heavily on reputation” and reluctant to shop around, the Legal Services Consumer Panel has said. At the same time, however, their satisfaction with the advice they received was high.

Lawyers acting for mentally ill clients and dementia sufferers have been praised in surveys commissioned by the Legal Services Board on the needs of vulnerable consumers, but some did find it hard to deal with solicitors. The majority of dementia sufferers said their experience of seeing a solicitor had been “extremely positive”.

London law firm Gordon Dadds has agreed the reverse takeover that will see it become a listed company and outlined an ambitious acquisition strategy to double its £25m revenue over the next three years by becoming a “major consolidator” of both top 200 law firms and also smaller practices through a back-office platform that it has developed.

Smaller law firms specialising in insolvency work will be hit with a double whammy as Brexit favours big firms that can keep debt recovery costs down, while an Online Court will make it easier for litigants in person to pursue claims, a report has predicted. But the overall picture for law firms handling insolvency work was bright, it said.

London law firm Gordon Dadds is set to become a public company through a reverse takeover of AIM-listed Work Group that values the firm at nearly £19m, it announced this afternoon. Alongside the acquisition, Work Group – an investing company – intends to raise up to £20m via an accelerated bookbuild placing of up to 457m shares to institutional investors.

Slater & Gordon has settled the first of three shareholder class action it is facing for A$36.5m (£21.6m), which the claimants’ solicitor said represented just a small fraction of their losses but was a better than “the diabolical alternative which meant likely insolvency for Slater & Gordon”.

Listed law firm Gateley has announced strong results for its last financial year, with revenue up 16% to £78m and profit before tax jumping 19% to £13m, alongside increased equity participation among staff. Shareholders at the first listed alternative business structure are set to receive a final dividend of 4.4p.

The groundbreaking alternative business structure owned by two major trade unions has begun its plan to provide legal services to other unions after signing a deal with the British Dietetic Association to launch BDA Legal. In other ABS news, Fairpoint Group plc has announced that its bank has assigned its debt to a new financier.