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There are “no strong brands yet” to advise small businesses on legal services and law firms tend to “look the same”, Mark Edwards, vice president and general manager of Rocket Lawyer UK, has said. Mr Edwards said innovation was “not happening as much as it should be” in the legal market.

Rather than feeling threatened by accountants’ move into legal services, law firms should set up alternative business structures (ABS) and compete with them, the president of the Law Society has said. Jonathan Smithers said: “The success of ABS to date indicates that clients are generally not concerned about sourcing their legal services from non-lawyers.”

A local authority legal department which recently warned that council lawyers are being forced to set up alternative business structures by restrictive rules on in-house practice, has won backing to do just that. Essex Legal Services predicted that it could make an additional surplus of £1.8m by 2020.

There is no reason why solicitors setting up a new law firm should not do so as an alternative business structure, the chief executive of the Solicitors Regulation Authority has said. Mr Philip predicted that solicitors would in the future be ” business people first”.

The co-founder of Britain’s only trade union-owned alternative business structure (ABS) has warned high street lawyers that there is nothing to stop it competing with them. He also expressed concern that the profession was becoming obsessed with profit at the expense of the client.