Legal Services Act

Four in ten managing partners at leading law firms see alternative providers such as the Big Four accountants and insurers as the biggest threat to the legal profession, according to a survey published today. It also found firms more likely to see growth coming from investment in technology and hiring teams, rather than mergers.

Four law firms have joined forces to launch Collaborative Employment Law (CEL), a group aiming to bring a novel mediated approach to employment disputes as an alternative to litigation, modelled on a technique developed by family lawyers.

The legal market is set for a “second wave” of external investment, a leading corporate financier said today, describing it as “an inevitable snowball that is gathering pace”. He identified several markets – from criminal law to large commercial firms – where there were opportunities for investors.

The Legal Services Board has today outlined its blueprint for radical reform of legal regulation, including regulation by activity rather than professional title, and a single regulator for the entire profession. The oversight regulator said its plan was intended to be a “durable solution rather than a further stepping stone to liberalisation”.

One-time network Connect2Law has been reborn as an alternative business structure that has acquired leading referral business Contact Law, Legal Futures can reveal. It is part of a strategy to establish C2L as “the UK’s leading provider of branded consumer legal services” on behalf of businesses entering the legal market.

An ABS set up by the owner of a debt collection agency is promising to offer “genuine” no-win, no-fee deals in an industry where it accuses solicitors of being unwilling to take the rough with the smooth.

The Legal Services Board has warned the Bar’s regulator that it cannot keep changing the cut score for the test would-be barristers have to pass before being allowed to take the Bar professional training course. However, it approved changes to the rules that will allow the BSB to lift the cut score this year.

A company founded by an ex-Premier League footballer to help people buy and invest in overseas property has converted into an alternative business structure so as to bring legal work in-house. Judicare Law International also seeks to protect investors in foreign property from losing money to developers in collapsed schemes and scams.

Well-known recovery specialist Leonard Curtis has today launched an alternative business structure to create a multi-disciplinary offering to businesses in financial distress. The solicitor founder said his experience to date showed how accountants were much better at being SMEs’ ‘trusted adviser’ than law firms.

Redde plc – the AIM-listed accident management company that owns two law firms, announced record results yesterday, and also that it has taken full ownership of the smaller of its alternative business structures. Turnover grew 53% to £379m, with profit before tax up a similar amount to £34.6m.

A niche health and social care alternative business structure has incorporated as a public limited company as a prelude to a future expansion and stock exchange listing. Ridouts Solicitors has no immediate plans to become a listed company but was getting it “ducks in a row” so as to be ready for when it happens.

The move to move Kent County Council’s legal team into an alternative business structure (ABS) is now well underway, with a white-label service to private law firms for routine work likely to be part of its offering, Legal Futures can reveal.

Slater & Gordon’s core UK business lost A$64m (£37m) in the year to 30 June 2016, while it spent A$33m on reorganising operations over here, the listed firm’s annual results have revealed. The company had already prepared the market for the group’s headline loss of A$1.02bn but still its shares fell 15% in trading.

A solicitor who oversaw “financial chaos” in his practice has been suspended, with a tribunal imposing conditions on his return to the profession in the future to ensure he does not hold a management position. He was also sanctioned for failing to co-operate with the Legal Ombudsman.

A lawyer-matching service for SMEs has raised £50,000 in less than three days as it bids to crowdfund £360,000 for the next stage of its development. LawyerFair told potential investors that “legal services are an inefficient, low innovation marketplace” and that within three years it would be turning over £4.6m.