Brad Askew with Kathryn Mortimer, DAS's head of legal services
Legal expenses insurer DAS has taken the next step in its preparations to become an alternative business structure (ABS) by acquiring online legal services company Everything Legal.
Everything Legal – which owns legal advice website Law on the Web along with more than a hundred niche legal sites – will give DAS a strong direct route to market once it becomes an ABS.
Law on the Web, which has been online since 1999, contains more than 9,000 pages of content and attracts over a million visitors every year; it has a ‘find a solicitor’ service as part of its offer. The other websites take annual visitor numbers to over 2.5 million.
Based in Bristol, Everything Legal employs more than 30 staff. Originally financial claims business Claims Financial, it expanded with the 2010 acquisition of Law on the Web from solicitor Martin Davies.
Back in 2008 DAS was one of the first non-law firms to state its intention to become an ABS, bringing in-house much of the legal work currently sent out to panel firms by acquiring Bristol law firm CW Law.
Chief executive Paul Asplin said that while DAS has been delivering legal content online for more than 10 years, “this acquisition will massively extend our capabilities and reach, in developing new services and new markets”.
He continued: “This will enable DAS to take a giant leap forward in delivering legal services online. The combination of the strength, resources and legal expertise of DAS with the unique skills and online presence that Everything Legal has successfully developed, will put us at the forefront of the rapidly developing market for legal services.”
Brad Askew, managing director of Everything Legal, added: “My vision for Law on the Web has always been for it to be the first port of call for people looking for solutions to their legal problems. Joining the DAS Group, which is uniquely positioned within the legal services market, will give us the opportunity to make that vision a reality.”
