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Everything you wanted to know about ABS applications but were literally afraid to ask
Friday, 22 June 2012Seven alternative business structures in more than five months does not seem to be a great achievement on the part of the Solicitors Regulation Authority, and increasingly Legal Futures has been hearing complaints about delay and a lack of transparency in the process.
Tags: ABS, Alternative business structures, MDP, multi-disciplinary practice, separate business rule, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in Alternative business structures, Features
Regulators and professional bodies strike MDP deal
Friday, 4 May 2012Twelve regulators and professional bodies from the legal, accountancy, financial and property sectors have finally signed a formal agreement aimed at co-ordinating the oversight of multi-disciplinary practices.
Tags: ABS, Alternative business structures, bar standards board, Council for Licensed Conveyancers, Financial Services Authority, ILEX Professional Standards, Institute of Chartered Accountants, IPReg, MDP, multi-disciplinary practice, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in Alternative business structures, Barristers, Latest news, Legal Executives, Other lawyers, Solicitors
Italian firm plots multi-disciplinary ABS
Friday, 27 April 2012Leading Italian multi-disciplinary firm Pirola Pennuto Zei & Associati has applied to become an alternative business structure, it has revealed. Pirola wants allow accountants and lawyers in its London partnership to share revenues and profits.
Tags: ABS, Alternative business structures, MDP, multi-disciplinary practice
Posted in Latest news, Market monitor
Prospect of MDPs "catching the imagination" of large law firms, survey finds
Tuesday, 14 February 2012Large law firms are showing increasing interest in forming multi-disciplinary practices with non-lawyer professionals, according to new research. The survey of 126 of the top 250 firms by accountants Smith & Williamson found that a third are interested in joining with a non-legal practice.
Tags: ABS, Alternative business structures, external investment, MDP, multi-disciplinary practice
Posted in Alternative business structures, Latest news, Market monitor
PwC to explore option of becoming an ABS and absorbing its legal arm
Wednesday, 7 December 2011Big four accountancy firm PwC is to explore whether to absorb its associated law firm and become an alternative business structure. Legal services is the one area of the firm’s work where it is not able to operate as a totally integrated practice.
Tags: ABS, accountants, Alternative business structures, Institute of Chartered Accountants, MDP, multi-disciplinary practice
Posted in Alternative business structures, Market monitor, News
Accountants' ABS ambitions hit by new EU audit rules
Thursday, 1 December 2011The ambitions of larger firms of accountants to offer legal services have become more complicated after the European Commission announced plans to stop auditors offering non-audit services. If it becomes law, the move will lead to the break-up of the ‘big four’ accountants into audit and consultancy businesses.
Tags: ABS, accountants, Alternative business structures, MDP, multi-disciplinary practice
Posted in Alternative business structures
Legal Pioneers: Whale Rock – the business that cannot wait to become an MDP
Monday, 26 September 2011The latest instalment of our Legal Pioneers series looks at the Whale Rock Professional Services Group, which has legal, accountancy and company secretarial arms. Clients already enjoy the benefits of the one-stop shop, writes Dan Bindman, but becoming an MDP will help considerably.
Tags: accountants, MDP, multi-disciplinary practice
Posted in Alternative business structures, Market monitor, News
Lawyers and accountants – happy marriage or divorce in the making?
Monday, 26 September 2011Among the many things that the Legal Services Act has done is revive the idea of multi-disciplinary practices (MDPs), thought dead after the Enron scandal a decade ago and compounded in the US by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. It is often forgotten that there was no MDP actually involved in Enron.
Tags: accountants, Institute of Chartered Accountants, MDP, multi-disciplinary practice
Posted in Blog
Legal Pioneers: Parabis – the innovative group eyeing up private equity investment
Monday, 22 August 2011In the second instalment of our new Legal Pioneers series, we profile Parabis, which currently operates as a co-operative of different insurance-related regulated companies. When the Legal Services Act goes lives, however, integration of legal and non-legal functions and external investment are on the horizon.
Tags: ABS, Alternative business structures, external investment, MDP, multi-disciplinary practice, stock market listing
Posted in Features, Market monitor
MDPs in the spotlight as 12 regulators and professional bodies agree oversight rules
Tuesday, 5 April 2011A memorandum of understanding between legal regulators and regulators and professional bodies in the financial, accountancy and property worlds whose members may be part of multi-disciplinary practices is close to agreement, it has emerged.
Tags: ABS, Alternative business structures, bar standards board, Council for Licensed Conveyancers, Financial Services Authority, ILEX Professional Standards, Institute of Chartered Accountants, IPReg, MDP, multi-disciplinary practice, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in Alternative business structures, Barristers, Legal Executives, News, Other lawyers, Regulation, Solicitors
Blog
Five key issues to consider when adopting an AI-based legal tech
As generative AI starts to play a bigger role in our working lives, there are some key issues that your law firm needs to consider when adopting an AI-based legal tech.
Bulk litigation – not always working in consumers interests
For consumers to get the benefit, bulk litigation needs to be done well, and we are increasingly concerned that there are significant problems in some areas of this market.
ABSs, cost and audits – fixing regulation after Axiom Ince
A feature of law firm collapses and frauds has sometimes been the over-concentration of power in outdated and overburdened systems of control.
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