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There is real potential for alternative business structures (ABSs) to have a positive impact on both the profession and consumers, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has said. The provisional conclusions of an equality impact assessment said solicitors would benefit from improved employment opportunities, while ABSs would facilitate improved access to legal services for consumers.

Australian law firm Slater & Gordon – the first in the world to go public – is keeping a close eye on developments in England and Wales and would consider entering the market, its managing director has revealed. Andrew Grech also gave an insight into the lengthy process they went through to float.

The updated draft of the single Handbook that will govern both traditional law firms and alternative business structures from October 2011 is being unveiled today by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). This is the last opportunity to comment on it. The latest stage in the SRA’s move to outcomes-focused regulation also includes a call for the Legal Services Board to extend the definition of reserved legal activities to cover all “solicitor activities”.

Personal injury claims and other low-value legal matters should be “delawyered” to some degree, former Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer has argued. The peer, who was the architect of the Legal Services Act, said alternative business structures would help in this process. Welcoming the “commoditisation” of personal injury work, he said it is “fundamentally a good thing that the market should only be charged what the service requires”.

In the fourth part of his look at external investment in law firms, Jeremy Black of Deloitte looks at the various methods to value equity stakes in law firms, which is not the easiest of tasks when it comes to law firms for various reasons.