Good lawyers will continue to exist. Poorer lawyers will go out of business and that’s the market share we are going to grab.”

The Co-operative Group has today announced plans to create 3,000 jobs in the legal sector over the next five years as it laid out its ambitions to create the largest consumer law business in the country.

A niche property law firm in Oxfordshire has become the sixth alternative business structure (ABS) to be licensed by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA).

The story launched many an attempt at humour on Twitter, but I will gladly put them to one side. One can see some challenges for this venture, not least that while Eddie Stobart is a well-known brand, especially among motorway travellers, it is not known for delivering any services, let alone professional ones, to consumers. You couldn’t describe it as core to a logistics business that owns a couple of regional airports and sources biomass among other things. It will be interesting to see how prominently the service is promoted.

AIM-listed online conveyancing company In-Deed – which last year became the first business to announce its intention to invest in law firms – has today begun its acquisition programme after admitting that its direct-to-consumer model is not growing as quickly as hoped.

Stobart Barristers, which offers access to a UK-wide network of specialist barristers for any area of law, uses a pricing model under which its clients agree and pay a fixed-fee through a ‘pay-as-you-go’ model during the litigation process.

The new division, headed up by the group’s legal director Trevor Howarth, has been formed following Stobart’s decision to employ its own barristers without a solicitor in 2008, a move which the company said has created “significant savings”.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has given Australia’s Slater & Gordon (S&G), the world’s first listed law firm, the green light to take over Russell Jones & Walker (RJW) after granting it the fifth alternative business structure licence.

A law firm that aims to offer a white-label personal injury service to insurers and brokers yesterday became the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s fourth alternative business structure (ABS), and first in Wales.

The plans to open up ownership were strongly opposed recently by a group of nine leading general counsel in the US, who argued that it would damage lawyers’ professionalism.

They said the proposal “opens the door to arrangements that make the practice of law more like other businesses and less like the distinct profession it has always been”.

Their letter to the commission provoked a response in the UK from Karl Chapman, chief executive of new legal business Riverview Law, who said he originally thought it was a spoof – such was his surprise at the views expressed – and then predicted that it could in time prove to be a “watershed moment”.

He said: “In 10 years, commentators will look back and draw connections between alternative business structures, entrants to the legal sector, changing customer demand, lawyer complacency, and this (by then) infamous letter, and identify 2012 as the year the market really started to change.

“The nine GCs have unwittingly played as significant a part in escalating this change as law firms do by publishing their profit-per-equity partner figures, thus demonstrating to clients the excess profits they make.”

He said that if he were the chief executive of any of the companies involved, “my first question would be, ‘Tell me, what were you thinking when you signed this letter?’, and my final observation would be, ‘I’ve asked the chief financial officer to conduct a review of our in-house and third-party legal spend over the last three years’.”

“The commission considered the pros and cons, including thoughtful comments that the changes recommended in the discussion draft were both too modest and too expansive, and concluded that the case had not been made for proceeding even with a form of nonlawyer ownership that is more limited than the D.C. model,” Gorelick and Traynor said.

Although it will not propose any changes to ABA policy on nonlawyer ownership of law firms, the commission will continue to consider how to provide practical guidance about choice of law problems that are arising because some jurisdictions, including the District of Columbia and a growing number of foreign jurisdictions, permit nonlawyer ownership of law firms

Where, then, is the public interest case for lawyer-only ownership? In the battle between assertion and evidence, assertion is best for lawyers because there is no evidence that external ownership is bad for clients or law firms.

Many of the lawyers who have only just woken up to the prospect of non-lawyer ownership of firms (a sizeable group, I’d wager) generally react with horror. The argument I hear all the time – exemplified by the letter signed by nine general counsel in the US – is that it will dilute the professionalism of lawyers, damage the lawyer-client relationship and lead to dastardly non-lawyers strong-arming lawyers to put profit before ethics.

Traditionally, law firms have been owned and controlled solely by lawyers, and they’re bound by a certain regulatory structure,” said Jamie Gorelick, a partner at WilmerHale who co-chairs the Commission on Ethics 20/20. “The concern is that a non-lawyer would not be similarly bound and doesn’t have the same ethical rules as lawyers.”

On the other side are those who say bringing in non-lawyer partners presents an opportunity for law firms to add client services, and that just because a firm is owned by non-lawyers doesn’t mean attorneys lose their independent judgment.

“There is no evidence that lawyers are incapable of practicing in conformance with [ethical] rules in organizations owned by or run by non-lawyers,” said Jones, of Sidley Austin. “In-house lawyers practice law in conformance with the rules even though the organizations from which they practice are owned by non-lawyers.”

The New York Bar has banned lawyers in the state from becoming an employee of a firm in which non-lawyers hold a stake, effectively preventing UK firms with New York bases from seeking external investment.

Co-operative Legal Services and high street firms John Welch and Stammers, and Lawbridge Solicitors Ltd have today become the first alternative business structures (ABSs) licensed by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA).

The judge's ruling did not come as a surprise, as he had expressed severe doubt whether Jacoby & Meyers had standing during two hearings on the matter in November and February.

Even if the state statutes at issue were unclear, Judge Kaplan said at the February hearing, he still would have abstained from hearing the case and stayed the action pending state court resolution of the state law issues (NYLJ, Feb. 8).

Judge Kaplan said on March 8 that provisions independent of Rule 5.4 prevented the plaintiffs from accepting non-lawyer equity investments, "even if they won on the merits of their constitutional claims," so that any opinion he would issue would be a "purely advisory declaration of the sort that is forbidden to federal courts under Article III of the U.S. Constitution."

Judge Kaplan's decision on standing, while a setback for the personal injury firm, at least leaves its lawyer, Jeffrey I. Carton of Meiselman, Denlea, Packman, Carton & Eberz, the chance to pursue an appeal at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

The paper presents the historical arguments that led to the Clementi review of the legal profession and its culmination in the Legal Services Act 2007. There were two strands: one based on consumerism (too many complaints about lawyers' services); the other based on a sustained investigation by the competition authorities into professions' restrictive practices (anti-competitive unless proved in the public interest). These led to the abandonment of traditional forms of organization for lawyers' practices (alternative business structures) and the imposition of a new regulatory structure for the profession (oversight and frontline regulators).

The growing row over private investments made by partners at DLA Piper, exclusively revealed by The Lawyer, shows no sign of dying down, with angry questions asked during a conference call held yesterday with regional partners to discuss the matter.

et the notion of ’ownership’, especially through the structure of partnership, is still espoused – often in tandem with its tenuous bedfellow, ‘collegiality’. I have recently been prompted to wonder (with ‘wonder’ in both its inquisitive and amazed meanings) whether this pervasive fondness for partnership and its claimed collegiality in fact reflects a romanticised but misplaced notion of both.

The reality in too many law firms is that their leaders and partners promote and defend their ‘collegiate’ cultures while at the same time condoning the behaviour of those who operate in silos, in an environment that encourages internal competition for clients and profits, where the quest for effective cross-selling is longstanding but frustrated, where the dominant philosophy prefers short-term income extraction to long-term investment, where there is a lack of mutual respect and an unwillingness to be accountable, and where collective aspirations and management decisions are too often ignored in the daily press of individualistic and self-interested (if not downright selfish) behaviour.

DLA-backed venture LawVest has assembled a team of solicitors and barristers to handle volume fixed-fee work, as details emerge of the legal services company's new-look business model.

A financial services group is to submit its stage two alternative business structure (ABS) licence application this week as it bids to add a legal practice to its portfolio, Legal Futures can reveal.

First, law firms must take the lead, for they have the most to do and most to gain. For them, the focus needs to turn to the three Cs of culture, cash flow and corporate outlook. Culture ought to be a force for good, but so often it appears as a negative aspect in the legal sector, reinforcing stereotypical views of conservative businesses with prima donna partners. As one funder says: “I think culture is a lazy way of explaining why [firms] are not keen to see change… People talk about culture as a way of explaining why any change would be bad and might damage what we’ve got.”

o-operative Legal Services’ (CLS) is launching a legal apprenticeship framework as part of its assault on the profession.

The new framework, which will sit within the Co-operative Group’s (Co-op) Apprenticeship Academy, will look to appoint up to 10 apprentices in 2012.

The move is aimed to help boost the number of Co-op apprentic

A groundbreaking business law firm operating entirely on fixed fees and featuring a mix of leading barristers and solicitors opens today, aiming for a market that it claims has been “protected from real competition for too long”.

So DLA Piper’s investment in soon-to-be ABS LawVest isn’t as much of a random punt as many first thought. As we reveal today, LawVest is launching with a bang.

Private equity (PE) firms are showing “considerable interest” in volume legal practices, the man behind Duke Street’s acquisition of the Parabis Group has told Legal Futures.

Russell Jones and Walker's £53.8m price tag suggests it was valued five times its 2013 EBITDA, so what could your firm be worth? asks Nick Jarrett-Kerr

Private equity house Duke Street has acquired a majority stake in the Parabis Group, the parent company of insurance litigation law firms Plexus Law and Cogent Law.

Russell Jones & Walker (RJW) aims to use its new access to capital to become one of the two or three players that will “dominate” the consumer legal market in the years to come, its chief executive has said.

Merger and acquisition as an outflow of carefully thought-through strategy: as recently stated we see this as affirmation that many law firms see acquisition and merger as simply one possible strategy in achieving their vision and carefully thought through strategic key objectives. It is not a knee-jerk reaction to client or market pressure.

Hill Dickinson and Kennedys have become the latest top 50 law firms to confirm plans to convert to an alternative business structure (ABS), as growing numbers of firms gear up for the "Tesco Law" revolution.

DAC Beachcroft and Withers, as well as Keoghs, are all actively considering an ABS conversion, which permits non-lawyer ownership of law firms through either external capital injections or a float and allows law firms to tag on non-legal services.

Co-operative Legal Services (CLS) has begun staffing its family division after launching what it described as the largest recruitment drive in its history.

A number of companies are looking at registering their legal departments as alternative business structures (ABSs) in a bid to turn their in-house function into profit centres, it has been claimed.

Pauline Wallace, UK head of public policy and regulatory affairs at PwC, told Legal Futures that legal services is the one area of the firm’s work where it is not able to operate as a totally integrated practice. While she would not be drawn on PwC’s strategy, she said the firm is “looking at all the options that are out there”.

Legal expenses insurer DAS has taken the next step in its preparations to become an alternative business structure (ABS) by acquiring online legal services company Everything Legal.

The order designating the SRA as a licensing authority for ABS was laid before Parliament today and will come into force on 23 December. The SRA has set the date of Tuesday 3 January – the first working day after the New Year – as the date on which it will start accepting applications.

Regional accountancy firm unveils plan to become ABS

I have some questions about the SRAs analysis too. Reservation of all legal services creates problems of its own. There is a significant risk of stifling innovation. The paper addresses these in part through cleaving to proportionality and in part through a patchwork of its own of exceptions to who regulates what. One regulator’s proportionality is another’s over- 0r under- regulation. Both the LSB and the SRA would advocate proportionality but the implication of their analysis is that they must mean something different by it or, perhaps more accurately, proportionality is directed by different presumptions (for/against competition/regulation).

The final legislative obstacle to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) licensing alternative business structures (ABSs) was removed on Tuesday when the House of Lords approved secondary legislation on non-lawyer owners’ disclosure of criminal convictions and appeals against ABS licensing decisions.

InDeed, the business set up by RightMove founder Harry Hill to provide seamless property services including conveyancing, will expand into legal services such as will writing and personal injury as soon as alternative business structures legislation is in place, Solicitors Journal can reveal.

This is further evidence that ­ultimately ABSs are just a tool, not an end in themselves. Colthorpe at Europe Partners says firms need to focus on what they need to do ­strategically and then work out how best to engineer it, whether as an ABS, a Swiss Verein or some other structure.

ABSs are undoubtedly coming to the City – not as fast as they are to the high street, but there is a lot more happening than managing partners across the Square Mile let on.

“Lots of practices in the City are looking at the implications of ABSs,” says Dixon at Firm Beliefs, “either as an option for their own growth and development, or out of fear, ­suspicion or knowledge that their competitors are doing it with a real purpose.”

o-operative Legal Services (CLS) has issued a major signal of intent by recruiting two leading solicitors to launch a family law service next year.

Jenny Beck, managing partner of London legal aid firm TV Edwards and co-chair of the Legal Aid Practitioners Group, and fellow TV Edwards partner Christina Blacklaws, who chairs the Law Society’s legal affairs and policy board, have been recruited along with solicitor Chris May, the firm’s former head of business development and strategy.

Jacoby & Meyers's challenge to the ban on law firms accepting outside investors as non-lawyer partners ran into trouble yesterday as a federal judge expressed skepticism that the firm had standing and that the issues were ripe for his consideration.

According to the SRA, six different types of organisation have so far shown official interest in becoming ABSs: law firms, claims management companies, major retailers, accountancy firms, loss adjusters and private equity houses.

Sir Nigel Knowles, DLA’s co-chief executive, has been appointed non-executive chairman of LawVest, a holding company that is developing a new “market-disrupting brand, pricing and service delivery model” for business clients. DLA has a minority stake.

However, the precise details of what LawVest plans to bring to market remain under wraps. It will become an ABS.

he move gives DLA Piper a foothold in the commoditised sector, with the firm’s co-chief executive officer Sir Nigel Knowles taking on the role of non-executive chairman at the company.

Other investors in LawVest include AdvisorPlusBusiness Solutions and a number of private investors, including chief executive Karl Chapman and chief operating officer Adam Shutkever, who was formerly chief executive of Palatium Investment Management.

The money will surely allow QS to leap several steps in its development and get to the end point far quicker than its already rapid rate of growth would have achieved. It’s not so much getting the firms on board – especially with the added credibility this news will give QS – as building the infrastructure to support them. The goal of dominating the high street market, gaining a 30-40% share and having firms demonstrably different from non-QS competitors just became that much more realistic.

He warned lawyers that “they are here to take your business” and that this would happen in the next 12 to 24 months.

QualitySolicitors sets sights on UK domination with private equity injection

Premier Property Lawyers has become the first alternative business structure (ABS) in the U.K. as outside investment in law firms brought about through the Legal Services Act (LSA) became possible from Oct. 6.

The Leicester-based firm, a wholly owned subsidiary of conveyancing services provider myhomemove, has been awarded its license by the Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) -- the only regulator approved to license ABSs to date.

The news comes as Oxfordshire-based firm Everyman Legal announced Thursday that it intends to become the first U.K. solicitors' practice to seek a stock market admission.

Everyman launched four years ago and combines a regional network of partner firms specializing in providing legal advice to entrepreneurs with the sale of online templates and information.

They also see that market consolidation can offers opportunities. Low price acquisitions, the ability to pick and chose individual teams, to make strategic acquisitions of particular clients or relationships, and the clearing out of some of the noise in the market place.

Yes clients are demanding “more for less” but that’s a common refrain across all business these days – the change facing the profession is not unique and in many other industries there are organisations that came out as big winners.

A somewhat simplistic categorisation, but I urge you to reflect – which messages resonate most, and critically, what are you going to do about it?

A ‘virtual’ law firm has today become the first UK solicitors’ practice to announce its intention to seek a stock market admission so as to fund growth and attract more solicitors to the business.

Other proposals include a legal costs adjudicator, who would lay out the basis for legal costs and provide for mediation or adjudication where they were disputed, and an independent body for complaints against barristers and solicitors. At the moment these are dealt with by disciplinary committees of the Bar Council and the Law Society, which have lay majorities.

The coming weeks see the build up to the implementation of the Legal Services Act (LSA) and in this time I will be addressing what we here at Pannone see as the potential opportunities afforded by the LSA.

It is well documented that the LSA will hit many law firms hard and undoubtedly for many it is a major threat to their margins and very existence. Considering that one of the 3 stated priorities of the LSA was to introduce greater competition into the legal market this isn’t surprising.

A leading law firm and an accident management company have joined forces to offer insurance companies and brokers a ‘white label’ alternative business structure (ABS) to revolutionise motor claims processes.

My view is “let the market decide.” Mr. Weber’s assertions about the risks are just that - assertions. As long as law firms disclose their ownership - and any other potential conflicts - I don’t see why educated clients like IBM cannot make a fully informed decision. IBM can decide to avoid such firms. In contrast, Siemens might be happy to retain these firms if it sees they offer better value.

Baker & McKenzie, Greenberg Traurig Maher (GTM) and Reed Smith are among a raft of firms to have been approached by Investec about the possibility of receiving external investment from the bank in order to take advantage of the Legal Services Act (LSA).

On the heels of an American Bar Association commission vote to permit non-lawyers to hold a minority ownership role in law firms, Jacoby & Meyers on Friday fired broadside at a New York court rule barring firms from accepting outside investments.

Australia’s Slater & Gordon (S&G), the world’s first publicly listed law firm, is “more seriously” evaluating the opportunities available in the UK, the company has revealed.

Mr Kines said Chinese and Indian law firms have allowed foreign law firms “to dominate the representation of the Chinese, Indian and Asian businesses”, but that there are opportunities to “correct that balance” because they have a better understanding of such clients.

He said there is interest in doing this, and that a recent report for the Solicitors Regulation Authority – which reported that one of China’s largest law firms is to open in London shortly as part of a plan to create an ABS targeting Chinese investors to the UK with a one-stop shop of professional advisers – rang true.

There is a strong consumer protection justification for making the whole conveyancing process a reserved legal activity, Professor Stephen Mayson has argued.

In this article, I examine the long delayed implementation of the ABS structure which is likely to be finally implemented in October 2011 or fairly soon after that. I review the plans of some early movers towards ABS and considers the possible benefits to law firms, to external investors and to clients.

The Legal Services Board (LSB) today launched its first statutory investigation into whether to extend the scope of regulation, after its consumer panel recommended making will-writing a reserved activity.

Disruptive, technology-based legal delivery services clearly have a place in what has been an otherwise locked-down law practice tradition. Laws and regulations that have been promulgated to provide consumer protection are unfortunately necessary to protect the many from the few. But they were not written with the many variations of legal service providers currently available in mind. Rather than determining if a legal delivery system violates UPL rules, what must evolve are new definitions of the types of legal services that should be regulated by new standards. Without that, this debate will play out in the courts and bar associations across the country to no one’s advantage, least of all LegalZoom.

Starting on its home turf in Arkansas, but with plans to expand the program, Wal-Mart's legal department is providing free legal services for patients at the Arkansas Children's Hospital.

They includes one of China’s largest law firms, which it said is planning to open an office in London in 2011 as part of a long-term plan leading eventually to the creation of an alternative business structure (ABS) targeting Chinese investors to the UK with a one-stop shop of professional advisers, including solicitors.

Insurance companies don’t always make money on such programs as you can get one or two patients, a baby that needs an extensive NIC stay which can run into the millions or a cancer patient in lengthy chemo, and profits are gone. Losses are common. Well, in order to reduce capitation costs, states are deciding to self-insure – willing to take the risk themselves (meaning tax payers bear the risk) and instead paying the insurance companies a greatly reduced capitation fee per Medicaid recipient to operate call centers and and claims processors. The insurance companies no longer bear the risk, you and I do. This cost savings may look good on paper for the first year because of the traditional length of time for an actual payout, but in the long run it will prove very costly to the states who opt to self-insure.

Competition from alternative business structures has emerged as a significant worry to top law firms, a new survey has shown.

The profession is expected to shrink dramatically over the next decade as the market embarks on a revolution sparked by the Legal Services Act (LSA). Nowhere is this more evident than in the legal insurance sector, an environment that is perfectly suited to consumers of commoditised legal services.