Alternative business structures

A niche ABS owned by a global insurance giant plans to take its service advising large companies on self-insurance schemes to other countries in which its parent operates.

Florida has become the latest American state to move towards allowing alternative business structures, while British Columbia has launched a regulatory sandbox to encourage innovation in Canada.

US legal services giant LegalZoom is bypassing the domestic ban on non-law firms practising law by employing US lawyers through its UK alternative business structure, it has emerged.

National law firm Shoosmiths has spun its debt recovery practice into an alternative business structure joint venture with collections, recoveries and enforcement company Chartsbridge.

National law firm Devonshires has merged its clinical negligence department with barrister-led firm PI Law Direct to create Devonshires Claims, a specialist clinical negligence and personal injury practice.

US dispersed law firm Rimon has entered the UK market as an alternative business structure, with plans to expand rapidly and challenge the likes of Keystone Law and gunnercooke.

A leading Chinese law firm has converted its London operation into an alternative business structure with a view to bringing non-lawyer partners on board. It is already in talks with some.

The Legal Services Act 2007 has only delivered “a few of the benefits typically associated with deregulation”, a report by Boston Consulting Group has concluded.

National consumer giant Irwin Mitchell is planning a stock market float valuing the law firm at £500m, according to press reports at the weekend. It could happen this year, said Sky News.

Revenue and profits at Co-operative Legal Services fell as a result of coronavirus but case volumes grew during last year, its annual results have shown.