News

Solicitors’ firms put off becoming limited companies by the complexity of conversion from partnerships are missing out on “very substantial” tax savings, according to one former firm that incorporated successfully three years ago.

The updated draft of the single Handbook that will govern both traditional law firms and alternative business structures from October 2011 is being unveiled today by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). This is the last opportunity to comment on it. The latest stage in the SRA’s move to outcomes-focused regulation also includes a call for the Legal Services Board to extend the definition of reserved legal activities to cover all “solicitor activities”.

An expert advisory group to help the Legal Services Consumer Panel design its Consumer Welfare Index has been unveiled. The index – first announced in the panel’s 2010/11 workplan – will be a basket of indicators that, taken together, will assess whether the legal services reforms are having a positive impact on consumers. It will then form the basis of an annual “consumer health check”.

In the final part of his series on external investment in law firms, Jeremy Black of Deloitte explains that private equity firms have one goal – to make money – and briefly looks at the implications of raising funds through listing.

Personal injury claims and other low-value legal matters should be “delawyered” to some degree, former Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer has argued. The peer, who was the architect of the Legal Services Act, said alternative business structures would help in this process. Welcoming the “commoditisation” of personal injury work, he said it is “fundamentally a good thing that the market should only be charged what the service requires”.

There will be no ‘big bang’ in legal services in the near future and if solicitors are waiting for it before deciding on their firm’s survival strategy, they risk being overtaken by events, a leading solicitor has warned. Neil Kinsella, managing partner of national law firm Russell Jones & Walker, also said that firms could be “dancing with the devil” by accepting private equity investment.

In the fourth part of his look at external investment in law firms, Jeremy Black of Deloitte looks at the various methods to value equity stakes in law firms, which is not the easiest of tasks when it comes to law firms for various reasons.

The Legal Ombudsman (LeO) will seek to determine complaints that cross over into professional negligence, it has emerged. Chief ombudsman Adam Sampson said that while its predecessor bodies, such as the Legal Complaints Service, would shy away from complaints about the quality of legal advice offered, the Legal Services Act “makes no mention of any such limitation of our powers”.

The Law Society is to enlarge the board of the Solicitors Regulation Authority so as to introduce parity between the number of solicitor and lay members in a deal struck with the Legal Services Board. It follows a similar agreement between the LSB and Bar Standards Board, whose offer to introduce parity on the road to a lay majority has been accepted.

Former Linklaters partner Nick Eastwell was today announced as the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s (SRA) first ever chief adviser on City law firms. Mr Eastwell, who spent 29 years with Linklaters, 21 as a partner, will act as a “bridgehead” between the SRA and City law firms, providing expert advice to the SRA executive and board.