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There is widespread ignorance of the differences between legal services providers and consumers are shocked to discover not all of them are regulated, research commissioned by the Solicitors Regulation Authority has found. Consumers expect “all legal service providers to be appropriately skilled, qualified and regulated” and so distinguish between providers on such things as customer service and the quality of relationships.

Innovation has been on my mind of late. From the probate business I met last week that outsources legal work to an English solicitor working at an Australian law firm so that it gets done overnight, to Birmingham firm Blakemores and its stands in shopping centres, to the QualitySolicitors firm with branded and non-branded offices on opposite sides of the street.

Jeremy Black, associate partner in Deloitte’s professional practices group, begins a week-long look at the issue of external investment in law firms by considering the forces of change that will encourage them to investigate the options available.

The Scottish Parliament yesterday approved the introduction of alternative business structures (ABSs) which are majority owned by solicitors and other regulated professionals. The Legal Services (Scotland) Bill completed its passage through Holyrood and allows external investors to hold 49% of any new legal services business.

Indian legal process outsourcers see “a fat, complacent and profitable market place” in England and Wales “and they want a piece of it”, solicitors were warned last week. Mark Jones, former managing partner of Addleshaw Goddard, described legal process outsourcing as “a game changer for all of us” – 25% of Slaughter and May’s work is outsourceable, as is 50% of his own firm’s and maybe 100% for firms outside the top 50.