It isn’t really surprising that the Law Society’s marketing campaign, with the theme of ‘Ask a Solicitor’, has provoked a lively discussion in the Law Gazette LinkedIn group. Read the full story

Last week the first three firms were given approval to operate as Alternative Business Structures (ABSs) and duly licensed.

For those unfamiliar with the territory, an ABS is a firm where a non-lawyer is a manager of the firm, or has an ownership-type interest in the firm. A firm may also be an ABS where another body is a manager of the firm, or has an ownership-type interest in the firm and at least 10 per cent of that body is controlled by non-lawyers. The Legal Services Act is designed to liberalise the £23bn UK legal market by allowing companies to provide legal services, and Read the full story

Last Wednesday Secretary of State for Justice, Ken Clarke, made a written statement to the Commons on Competitive Tendering. The proposed timetable has yet again slipped back.

He told the Commons: “The Government believe that tendering criminal defence work for competition, alongside regulatory changes, has the potential to significantly modernise legal aid provision, improve the service provided to legal aid clients, streamline the procurement process and deliver value for money for the taxpayer.” In a thinly veiled threat he said: Read the full story

Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke has expressed the hope that the advent of alternative business structures could have as dramatic an impact on legal services as the so-called ‘Big Bang’ of 1986 had on the financial sector.

He was speaking on Wednesday at the CityUK Future Litigation event held at the offices of Clifford Chance. He said: “As for domestic regulation, we are less than a month away from an historic change – the introduction of Alternative Business Structures on October 6 that will allow solicitors, barristers and other professionals to combine together in new ways, should they choose to, for the benefit of the consumer. Time will tell, but I hope that comparisons with the Big Bang in 1986 do not prove entirely fanciful.” Read the full story

6 October was the date on which the first alternative business structures (ABS) should have been able to open for business in the legal services market place in England and Wales. But now there has been a delay, and it will probably be at least the end of the year before non-lawyers can fully own and invest in law firms.

An ABS is a firm where a non-lawyer is a manager of the firm, or has an ownership-type interest in the firm. A firm may also be an ABS where another body is a manager of the firm, or has an ownership-type interest in the firm and at least 10 per cent of that body is controlled by non-lawyers. Under the proposed rules, ABS are not limited in the services that they can offer to the public. The Act is designed to Read the full story

Lord Hunt of Wirral was commissioned by the Law Society in October 2008 to advise on what was needed to establish best modern practice in the regulation of solicitors. His terms of reference were: Read the full story