Alternative business structures

The top-30 accountancy firm which in 2013 was the first accountancy practice to acquire an alternative business structure (ABS) licence from the Solicitors Regulation Authority has taken on a second licence from the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

Making the consumer journey “more flexible, faster and less expensive”, along with giving clients more control, will be the key to the success of Slater & Gordon, its UK chief executive said this week. Ken Fowlie said he was also “determined to make a success” of the firm’s strategy of becoming a dominant consumer law brand, while admitting to “bumps on the road”.

The managing director of a leading personal injury firm has revealed that he and his private equity backers have a masterplan to combine three personal injury practices into a firm large enough to be listed on the London stock market.

A “brand-driven” solicitors’ practice specialising in employment law has become an alternative business structure in order to bring its ‘virtual’ barristers’ chambers under the ABS umbrella. Once the concept is proven, it aims to roll it out across other areas of practice.

An international finance and technology law practice involved in the online gaming and electronic payments industries, has become an alternative business structure to help its plans to grow as a group and set up offices across the European Union.

Slater & Gordon’s leadership remains “convinced of the strategic merit” of taking on the UK consumer legal services market, its chief executive said yesterday as he revealed that it has had an encouraging start to the current financial year – although this was in part because of the jobs that have been cut in recent months.

A “specialist paralegal law firm” has launched an alternative business structure that hopes to become a full service high street law practice. Having an ABS will enable the firm to undertake reserved work such as signing off the deed for family trusts and deeds of variation, and applying to the court for grants of probate.

A niche law firm specialising purely in employee ownership has become an alternative business structure to extend its own scheme to non-lawyers. The firm, a limited company, was one of the first in the country to introduce employee ownership four years ago.

A wealth management firm has become an alternative business structure and one of the first to adopt dual regulation by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and Financial Conduct Authority. In other ABS news, the vendors of Simpson Millar are to receive a further £3m after achieving the target for their earn-out.

A London-based sports law firm that counts among its clients the tennis star Maria Sharapova and world champion cyclist Lizzie Armistead, has become an alternative business structure with the aim of bringing analysis of substances in-house. We also round up ABS news from Crawford Legal, Gateley, Express Solicitors and Redde.