Alternative business structures

A firm set up by Mark Johnson, a solicitor and former partner at Geldards, is among the first dozen entities to be named today as regulated by the Bar Standards Board. He did it because of access to Bar Mutual indemnity insurance and the Bar’s “simpler and more transparent” rules.

Sir Michael Snyder, senior partner of top 20 accountants Kingston Smith, has welcomed a change of approach to multi-disciplinary practices at the Solicitors Regulation Authority after describing the “sheer hell” of the firm’s first attempt to become an alternative business structure.

Slater & Gordon has hit its target of raising £456m from a share issue to fund its acquisition of Quindell plc’s professional services division. Around 70% of the £637m initial purchase price is being funded through new shares, with the rest through bank debt.

A groundbreaking alternative business structure that last year embraced employee ownership has seen the valuation of its shares rise 15% over the past 12 months. Staff at Triton Global each received a free initial tranche of shares and nearly two-thirds have since invested further to the collective tune of £58,000.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) has licensed 48 alternative business structures to carry out probate work in its first six months as regulator, it has emerged.

The first Polish-owned, Polish-speaking alternative business structure opened for business at the start of this month – with the help of a British solicitor. Optimal Solicitors started life as a claims management company before converting.

Slater & Gordon has moved to dispel any doubts about the wisdom of its acquisition of Quindell’s professional services division (PSD), emphasising the work it put into going over the books. It also revealed that the PSD will operate as a standalone division.

The rule which requires the Solicitors Regulation Authority to approve the individuals who own companies that in turn own alternative business structures is set to be scrapped. The requirement for firms to keep a record of non-material breaches of the SRA Handbook may also go.

Insurance giant Markel has laid out its plans to rapidly expand LHS Solicitors, an alternative business structure which combines the law firm and legal helpline it bought last year as part of its acquisition of Abbey Protection Group plc.

Cahill Gordon & Reindel, based in New York, has become the first US firm to set up an alternative business structure in the UK, Legal Futures can reveal. Its head of legal practice is Richard Kelly, a London-based partner.