Alternative business structures

Regional law firm Knights has raised £50m from its initial public offering, valuing the company at £103.5m when it starts trading on AIM on Friday.

Deloitte has been awarded its alternative business structure licence, some five months after announcing that it was to become the last of the Big Four accountancy firms to offer reserved legal activities.

A former hedge fund boss who wants a better service for those needing family law services is backing a multi-disciplinary law firm aimed at high net-worth individuals and family offices.

A group bringing together credit hire and legal services is to list on the stock exchange this week. Anexo Group has recently obtained an ABS licence.

Top-25 practice DWF is considering whether to become by far the largest law firm to list on the London Stock Exchange, it emerged today. The move would galvanise interest in law firms going public.

Big Four accountant KPMG has been reprimanded and fined £3.15m by the Financial Reporting Council after admitting misconduct in its auditing of former personal injury alternative business structure Quindell. William Smith, KPMG’s ‘audit engagement partner’, was fined £84,000 after an investigation lasting nearly three years.

Numeracy skills will be “massively more important in the new world of legal services delivery”, the co-founder of “legal engineers” Wavelength Law has predicted. He said there would be more solicitors in the future, as new technology and automation generated new kinds of disputes.

Pioneering alternative business structure Knights is the latest law firm to announce its intention to float on AIM, pledging to make three acquisitions in the next two years as part of its continuing growth strategy. Once it begins trading in late June, it will become the fifth law firm to list, hot on the heels of City firm Rosenblatt.

A fast-growing personal pension provider has set up an alternative business structure (ABS) to provide legal services for its portfolio of more than 6,000 commercial properties. Gemma Millard, director of Rivergate Legal, said Curtis Banks had added the ABS to its panel of law firms but “ultimately” the new business could work for anybody.

US-based medical reports giant ExamWorks – which owns leading UK provider Premex – has bought a personal injury firm as part of its acquisition of leading accident management group Kindertons. Jigsaw Law was originally a claims management company but was granted an alternative business structure licence in late 2012.