Market monitor

A third of the top 300 UK law firms will have disappeared by 2022, a law firm finance expert predicted at yesterday’s Legal Futures Innovation Conference. John Llewellyn-Lloyd, who advised London firm Gordon Dadds on its recent flotation, said that by then there would also be at least 10 listed law firms, with a combined capitalisation of £2bn.

Pioneering alternative business structure (ABS) rradar has become the first law firm to be selected for the London Stock Exchange ELITE programme, which helps innovative new companies grow. Gary Gallen, chief executive of rradar, told Legal Futures that listing was “certainly something we’re looking at”, and being part of the programme would give the firm “all the tools and skills you need to do that effectively”.

The public listing of Keystone Law will provide its private equity investor with a “smooth exit” once Root Capital chooses to move on, the firm’s chief executive has told Legal Futures. James Knight was speaking in the wake of yesterday’s news that the ‘dispersed’ or ‘virtual’ firm will list on AIM at the end of the month.

Keystone Law – the pioneering ‘dispersed’ law firm made up of 250 self-employed senior lawyers – is set to become the third legal practice to list on the London Stock Exchange’s AIM market, after announcing today that it will raise £15m through the float.

Multi-disciplinary alternative business structure (ABS) Alpaca is continuing with its efforts to disrupt legal and other professional services by declaring war on traditional working patterns and offering flexible working to all staff – and making three board-level hires as a result.

LegalBeagles, the decade-old consumer law forum, has launched an ‘all of market’ comparison website after raising nearly £1m in seed funding for the venture. It has pulled in open data from the Solicitors Regulation Authority to list every law firm in the country, including contact details.

A pioneering US law firm that only acts for cannabis industry operators is set to launch an office in the UK. Denver-based Hoban Law Group announced this week that it will open four offices in the EU by late autumn and two offices in Latin America by spring of 2018.

The head of the alternative business structure set up by company formations specialist and legal publisher Jordans has set its sights on international expansion. Debbie Farman said Jordans Corporate Law was “a concept we can replicate globally”, after growing its turnover from £67,000 in 2014 to £1.1m this year.

Thousands of small businesses are flocking to a purpose-built legal hub, operated by alternative business structure LHS Solicitors, to access online documents. Some 35,000 documents have been downloaded from the Federation of Small Businesses Legal Hub – provided by LHS on a white-label basis – since its launch last month.

Gordon Dadds has started making good on its promise to be acquisitive, with the recently listed law firm announcing the purchase of a corporate tax advisory business for up to £8m. City-based CW Energy LLP describes itself as the leading independent corporate tax consultancy to the oil and gas industry.

The alternative to Slater & Gordon’s proposed recapitalisation is insolvency, the company has told creditors and shareholders as it seeks approval of the plan, which would see the debt of the newly separate UK arm slashed. However, shareholders would see their ownership of the company almost wiped out.

A niche law firm referral network set up last year by Peterborough solicitors has increased its members from 30 to 245. Duncan Jackson, head of BUCKLESconnect, said the network specialised in French and Spanish law, and acted as an “international department” for many member firms.

Warwickshire County Council has become the latest local authority to launch an alternative business structure to expand the work it already does for other public bodies. Unlike some of the other local authority ABSs, this is not a case of the entire legal department transferring into the new business.

Obelisk Support – the outsourcing company that uses former City solicitors to provide temporary support services to in-house teams and law firms – is eyeing up its first international office after it was the only legal business to join London Mayor Sadiq Khan on a trade mission to Paris.

Law firms are facing a “pivotal moment” where they need to turn talk of improving efficiency into action, with those that are seeing the competitive advantage, new research has claimed. It said firms “appear to be in a holding pattern, pledging forward-looking action, while cleaving to traditional thinking”, such as hourly billing.