Tag Results
Law firms – the most generous businesses in the world
Monday, 11 October 2010Jeremy Black, associate partner in Deloitte’s professional practices group, begins a week-long look at the issue of external investment in law firms by considering the forces of change that will encourage them to investigate the options available.
Tags: ABS, Alternative business structures, external investment
Posted in Alternative business structures, Market monitor, News
SRA bids to hold firm line against firms doing deals that pre-empt ABSs
Monday, 11 October 2010Solicitors should not be allowed to enter into any binding contracts for the sale of a law firm to a non-lawyer investor ahead of 6 October 2011, the board of the Solicitors Regulation Authority will be told this week. Certain conditional contracts should be off-limits too because they threaten the independence of law firms.
Tags: ABS, Alternative business structures, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in Alternative business structures, News, Solicitors
Scottish Parliament approves ABSs with minority external investment
Thursday, 7 October 2010The Scottish Parliament yesterday approved the introduction of alternative business structures (ABSs) which are majority owned by solicitors and other regulated professionals. The Legal Services (Scotland) Bill completed its passage through Holyrood and allows external investors to hold 49% of any new legal services business.
Tags: ABS, Alternative business structures, Scotland
Posted in Alternative business structures, News
The final countdown
Wednesday, 6 October 2010Journalists love a good landmark and 6 October is a corker for those of us who get overly excited by legal services reform – the Legal Ombudsman opens today and in a year’s time, the first alternative business structure should open its doors. But is anyone keeping an eye on all the other reform agendas around litigation costs and funding to ensure that access to justice does not fall through the cracks?
Tags: ABS, Alternative business structures, external investment, Legal Ombudsman, legal process outsourcing, Legal Services Board, LeO, LPO
Posted in Blog
Indian LPOs want a piece of the “fat, complacent and profitable” UK market
Monday, 4 October 2010Indian legal process outsourcers see “a fat, complacent and profitable market place” in England and Wales “and they want a piece of it”, solicitors were warned last week. Mark Jones, former managing partner of Addleshaw Goddard, described legal process outsourcing as “a game changer for all of us” – 25% of Slaughter and May’s work is outsourceable, as is 50% of his own firm’s and maybe 100% for firms outside the top 50.
Tags: ABS, Alternative business structures, legal process outsourcing, LPO
Posted in Alternative business structures, News, Outsourcing
Can ABSs spark a revolution in wills and probate services?
Thursday, 30 September 2010Daniel Curran looks at how ABSs could improve the offering in the wills and probate market, and where probate genealogists fit in with the mix. On the face of it, he says, this should be one area where the benefits of the ongoing reform of legal services regulation should be most keenly and most beneficially felt by consumers.
Tags: ABS, Alternative business structures, will-writing
Posted in Alternative business structures, Market monitor, News
LSB: no ban on referral fees but publish all agreements with introducers
Wednesday, 29 September 2010The Legal Services Board (LSB) has confirmed that it does not back reinstating the ban on referral fees but said that instead all agreements between lawyers and their introducers should be published. As first reported on Legal Futures last month, the LSB said today that there is insufficient evidence to make the case for a ban, but that transparency and disclosure need to be improved. It also said there should be the same rules for the different parts of the regulated legal market so far as possible.
Tags: ABS, Alternative business structures, Legal Services Board, referral fees
Posted in Legal Services Board, News, Other lawyers, Regulation, Solicitors
BSB unveils blueprint to become specialist regulator of advocacy businesses
Monday, 27 September 2010The Bar Standards Board (BSB) will become a specialist regulator of entities providing advocacy services, if proposals set out today are approved. Under the plans, BSB-regulated entities could not have passive investors, would need a majority of managers who can practise as advocates in the higher courts, and could only have a maximum of either 10% or 25% of non-lawyer managers.
Tags: ABS, Alternative business structures, bar standards board, barrister-only entities, Barristers, LDP, legal disciplinary practice
Posted in Alternative business structures, Barristers, News
Conveyancing Association launches to lobby over lender panels and prepare for ABSs
Sunday, 26 September 2010Volume conveyancers are reaching out to all “serious” conveyancing practitioners in a bid to form a new representative body for the sector. The Conveyancing Association – which has grown out of the Direct Conveyancing Association – launches today with a rallying call against restricted lender panels and for conveyancers to respond to the impending challenge of alternative business structures.
Tags: ABS, Alternative business structures, conveyancing, licensed conveyancers
Posted in Alternative business structures, Other lawyers, Solicitors
Weekly round-up: ABSs, ABSs and more ABSs
Sunday, 26 September 2010Our weekly round-up of other relevant news from elsewhere finds alternative business structures on the minds of virtually everyone, whether in England, Scotland, Canada or the USA. If one theme emerges, it is that everyone is waking up to the threats and possibilities inherent in them.
Tags: ABS, Alternative business structures, external investment, private equity
Posted in Alternative business structures, Market monitor, Resources