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Two south-east conveyancing businesses owned by estate agents have become the newest alternative business structure (ABS), meaning that more than 50 licences have now been issued by the two ABS regulators.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority is under pressure to extend its April 2013 deadline for legal disciplinary partnerships with non-lawyer partners to become alternative business structures, after the Legal Services Board said it was “unlikely” to insist on it before 2014.

The Bar Council has issued a sharp rebuke to the Legal Services Board for criticising how it is approaching the legal services reforms, saying that while “our regulators talk about key performance indicators, we talk about the interests of justice”.

It has now been 12 months since the formal introduction of alternative business structures (ABSs) by the Legal Services Act 2007. Prior to the reform being introduced, speculation about the effects such radical changes would have was rife. In particular, those pessimistic about the changes lamented the undermining of the legal profession via the introduction of so-called ‘Tesco Law’, combined with the ringing of the death knell for the high street firm as we currently know it.

Leading defendant law firm Keoghs has secured “significant investment” from mid-market private equity investor LDC, which is part of Lloyds Banking Group. It is taking a 22.5% minority stake.