Jabbari: Parabis has an extremely strong ambition for consumer law
Alternative business structure Parabis Group is to create a branded franchise network of regional law firms to support its consumer law offering, after hiring former Connect2Law chief David Jabbari, Legal Futures can reveal.
Mr Jabbari, who also headed Pannone Affinity before leaving the Manchester firm ahead of the Slater & Gordon acquisition, has joined Parabis Law as a partner.
Parabis sits behind the consumer ABSs established by leading brands such as Direct Line and Saga. Mr Jabbari’s role is to develop Parabis’s capabilities into “the market’s leading consumer law offering to ABSs, affinity groups and other clients”.
He will also establish within Parabis the business he had begun to develop while at Connect2Law of a branded franchise network of leading regional law firms, starting with an initial five or six ‘hubs’.
This will offer law firms a combination of back-office shared services, quality assurance, branding and marketing support together with the opportunity to deliver parts of the consumer and commercial law services required by Parabis’s clients.
It will initially be a B2B brand – giving quality assurance akin to ‘Intel Inside’ – but in time could possibly become a consumer-facing brand on its own account. It is not known whether this will all happen under the Connect2Law name.
As well as helping ABSs offer a wide range of consumer law services, Parabis said it has also invested in increasing its capability to supply commercial and corporate legal services to in-house legal departments, SMEs and larger companies. The new law firm network could play a role across these initiatives, it suggested.
Tim Oliver, CEO of Parabis Group, said: “We have identified consumer law as a growth area. We already have excellent capability in this area and with David on board we can take it to the next level.
“We will offer sophisticated support to ABSs and affinity groups, from sales conversion through to the widest range of delivery options. For example, the new law firm network will provide our clients’ customers with access to high-quality face-to-face legal services across the UK.”
Mr Jabbari said: “Parabis has an extremely strong ambition for consumer law. Looking at the quality of the assets and people that Parabis has across its operations, I have no doubt that it will be the market leader in consumer law services to ABSs and affinity clients, in the insurance sector and beyond.
“Our network of law firms will add to the list of things that significantly differentiate Parabis from other providers of these services.”
Shared services. If anyone can make it spin it’s the DJ.