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A personal injury claims mediation business, an American law firm and one of the largest local authority shared legal services in the country are among the latest alternative business structures to be licensed by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

Nottingham Law School, the first in the country to apply for an alternative business structure (ABS) licence, aims to offer young entrepreneurs a paid-for business advice service, it has emerged.

Express Solicitors, the Manchester personal injury firm, is poised to make further acquisitions after securing £10m funding from the Royal Bank of Scotland. It said the money allowed a focus on growing the business “without having to compromise” on other areas.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has put in place plans to fast-track alternative business structure and other new entity applications from criminal law firms in the event that the legal action against the government’s plans to reform legal aid fails.

Does non-lawyer ownership end damaging short-termism within law firms and improve both the economics and culture of legal practice, or does it risk standards and offer little in the way of increasing access to legal services?