Market monitor

A legal comparison website has gone live with its bespoke platform with the demand for such services in flux. The relaunch of MyLegalAdviser comes in the wake of The Law Superstore being sold last month. It is the brainchild of Alex Boothman, a one-time private client solicitor.

Law firms embracing artificial intelligence are expected to create new business models to pass on the benefits to clients, research by City giant Herbert Smith Freehills has suggested. The way trainees learn about the law will also change and may reshape in the traditional pyramid shape of the large firms, it said.

Almost half of City firms view Brexit as a threat and more than two thirds see other professional services firms as the overwhelming threat among recent entrants to the profession, according to a survey published yesterday. It found that almost a quarter of City firms named Brexit as the biggest challenge to their future success.

Redde, the AIM-listed accident management company that owns two law firms has recorded strong annual results, with turnover up 25% and profits increasing 16%. It also laid out how it is growing the services offered by its main firm, pioneering alternative business structure NewLaw Solicitors, into areas other than road traffic-related claims.

Conveyancing work has fallen to its lowest level since the middle of 2013, and the number of firms actively doing the work hit a new low, a survey has found. While the top five firms have been “insulated” from the lull in the market, the smallest operators outside the top 1,000 conveyancing practice have suffered the most.

National law firm Gateley has told investors that its decision to list on the London Stock Exchange will help it withstand potential economic uncertainty caused by Brexit. Its annual report also showed that finance director Neil Smith was the top earner among the senior management in the year to 30 April 2017.

Slater & Gordon has announced yet another eye-watering loss for its last financial year, mainly due to yet another write-down of goodwill – this time of £215m – following the acquisition of Quindell’s professional services division. It is also to spin off its UK operation into a separate business.

Peace Crowell, a niche US firm specialising in energy and infrastructure projects, has opened a London office as an alternative business structure (ABS). In other ABS news, Simpson Millar has sold its financial services arm, Metamorph Law has made another acquisition, and Irwin Mitchell has unveiled encouraging financial results.

The Ministry of Justice is moving ahead with the introduction of price competition and larger contracts for court-based duty solicitor advice for housing cases, despite overwhelming opposition from respondents to its consultation. Just five out of 51 respondents agreed with it on price competition.

Legal comparison website The Law Superstore is to focus on generating lower-cost leads rather than more expensive solid instructions, after it was bought by a similar site for property services. According to the outgoing managing director, it was the decision of the site’s private equity backers to sell the business to reallymoving.com.

A business that supplies unregulated legal services to SME clients worldwide via a virtual law firm using more than 100 consultant lawyers, has added an alternative business structure to its group to offer regulated services to UK consumers.

Edward Hands & Lewis, a Leicester-based law firm with 15 branches, is planning to launch a national network of franchised offices next year. Its senior partner said: “I’m a passionate believer in the high street solicitor, and I would love to see our brand in every high street. This is the best way to do it.”

Fairpoint Group plc – the AIM-listed company that owns national law firm Simpson Miller – has today appointed joint administrators and announced its intention to leave the stock exchange, but stressed that its legal business will continue to trade as a going concern due to its separate funding.

The group that owns London law firm Gordon Dadds today became the second listed law firm after the shareholders of what was Work Group plc yesterday approved the reverse takeover. The new company was admitted to trading on AIM today, with Gordon Dadds chief executive Adrian Biles owning 26.7% of the shares in issue.

National law firm Simpson Millar has insisted that it is “business as usual” after its listed parent copany, Fairpoint Group, announced its intention to appoint administrators. Last month, the group announced that its debt had been sold on and that a £5m funding facility had been provided to the legal services business.