Considered among the best and used by millions of people around the world, the British legal services have not essentially changed much for centuries. They have been following a traditional model of doing business, strictly regulated and accessible only to the practitioners of the law. With the arrival of the Legal Services Act 2007 (LSA), the United Kingdom’s £25 billion legal market became one of the most liberalized and innovative on earth. The new system allows companies that are not strictly law firms to offer legal services. At the same time it gives law firms the opportunity to take investments from third parties and undertake activities in other fields, with the declared intention of creating more choice, at a better value, for the
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The government said that the change would boost economic growth in the law industry, increase the reputation of the UK as an outstanding legal services market, and make legal services more available, effective and competitive for customers. Legislation and regulation had restricted the management, ownership and financing of firms providing legal services for hundreds of years. This limited innovation and competition, giving less choice to customers and consequently putting less pressure on law firms to work in the most efficient ways. Under the new ABS trading bodies, lawyers were now able to work in mixed-practices offering legal, financial and other advice, or be employed by different kinds of businesses, such as insurance companies, banks and others enterprises. Both lawyers and non-lawyers would be entitled to own law firms, which could attract investments from many different sources. The idea was to benefit clients, making the buying of legal services more accessible, and at the same the time law firms themselves, making it easier to finance their …show more content…
However, not necessarily all law firms will become an ABS. Professor Stephen Mayson, one of the foremost experts in the matter, predicts that some will retain the old system, with senior partners financing their firm mainly through their direct investments or bank loans. Only a small percentage of the 156,000 solicitors and over 10,000 law firms in England and Wales have so far converted into an Alternative Business Structure. Most of them, though, now feel that the challenges brought in by the LSA represent an opportunity more than a threat, and recognize that some form of change is necessary in order to continue to prosper. “We are seeing a liberation from the constraints of narrow thinking about the way legal services can be delivered”, said professor Richard Susskind, author of Tomorrow’s Lawyers and an advisor to firms and governments. The ABS can create new chances for a profession often described as out of touch with the world of modern business. Law students are beginning to recognize that they cannot resist reforms and modernization of their future profession. The long recession of 2008, which brought heavy cuts to public services including to the legal aid paid by government to lawyers on behalf of people who cannot afford it, and the digital revolution, which opened new ways to do business in all fields, have contributed to the
The government said that the change would boost economic growth in the law industry, increase the reputation of the UK as an outstanding legal services market, and make legal services more available, effective and competitive for customers. Legislation and regulation had restricted the management, ownership and financing of firms providing legal services for hundreds of years. This limited innovation and competition, giving less choice to customers and consequently putting less pressure on law firms to work in the most efficient ways. Under the new ABS trading bodies, lawyers were now able to work in mixed-practices offering legal, financial and other advice, or be employed by different kinds of businesses, such as insurance companies, banks and others enterprises. Both lawyers and non-lawyers would be entitled to own law firms, which could attract investments from many different sources. The idea was to benefit clients, making the buying of legal services more accessible, and at the same the time law firms themselves, making it easier to finance their …show more content…
However, not necessarily all law firms will become an ABS. Professor Stephen Mayson, one of the foremost experts in the matter, predicts that some will retain the old system, with senior partners financing their firm mainly through their direct investments or bank loans. Only a small percentage of the 156,000 solicitors and over 10,000 law firms in England and Wales have so far converted into an Alternative Business Structure. Most of them, though, now feel that the challenges brought in by the LSA represent an opportunity more than a threat, and recognize that some form of change is necessary in order to continue to prosper. “We are seeing a liberation from the constraints of narrow thinking about the way legal services can be delivered”, said professor Richard Susskind, author of Tomorrow’s Lawyers and an advisor to firms and governments. The ABS can create new chances for a profession often described as out of touch with the world of modern business. Law students are beginning to recognize that they cannot resist reforms and modernization of their future profession. The long recession of 2008, which brought heavy cuts to public services including to the legal aid paid by government to lawyers on behalf of people who cannot afford it, and the digital revolution, which opened new ways to do business in all fields, have contributed to the