Cuts in funding for local authorities have seen many of their legal teams heading towards the ABS model in an effort to improve efficiency. Many people outside the legal profession believe that ABS stands for Anti-lock Braking System and indeed it does. In fact, if you Google those initials that is exactly what comes up.

However, as it concerns the legal sector it means Alternative Business Structure and it began life with the 2007 Legal Services Act which allowed non-lawyers to own or invest in law firms for the first time. It was described as the biggest shake-up of the legal profession since the 1980’s when solicitors were first allowed to advertise. It was thought that an ABS would allow consumers greater choice and access to legal services by opening up what had been until then a closed profession. Critics of the Act thought that it would lead to non-lawyers who were only focused on profit selling off-the-shelf legal products and services and labelled it “Tesco law”.

Indeed, the first three businesses granted an ABS licence included the Co-op which set up Co-operative Legal Services; a firm in Oxfordshire, John Welch and Stammers; and jasa pendirian cv di tangerang a sole practitioner in Sidcup in Kent called Lawbridge Solicitors. The latter two both changed their status so that they could appoint non-lawyers as directors, in the case of Lawbridge the solicitor’s wife.

Today, all the big four accountancy firms, Deloitte, KPMG, PwC, and EY, have now received an ABS licence, Deloitte being the last to apply and receiving its’ licence in June. They are all now allowed to practice law in the UK.

Around half of the ABS’s now in existence – anywhere between 300 and more than 500 depending on whose figures you believe – are traditional law firms who have converted so that non-lawyers can become directors, and so that they can take advantage of full corporate structure. Other companies, such as insurance companies have also jumped on the bandwagon since the practice of law firms paying commissions to them for referrals was banned by the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012. Admiral, Aegis, RSA, and Direct line have all set up partnerships with law firms. So too have BT, the AA, and Saga.

Another business called Quality Solicitors was set up in 2008 and tried to market the services of its member law firms, partly by setting up “legal access points” in W. H. Smith stores, but admitted that this had not worked for all its’ then 100+ member firms and the idea was dropped in 2013 after two years. Quality Solicitors chief executive said at the time that this was partly due to the fact that research had shown that as few as 28% of consumers had required any need of legal services in the previous 12 months. One might think that they would have carried out that research somewhat earlier in the proceedings.

However, elsewhere the idea of marketing law services appears to have been successful. Axess Law was founded in Toronto in 2012 by two partners and opened offices in branches of Walmart which were available from 10.00 am to 8.00 pm and provided services such as wills and probate, notary services and power of attorney. It provided a “wills while you wait” service and in the space of less than two years Axess Law had drafted no less than 13,000 wills in just ten Walmart stores, taking customers through the whole process in less than an hour and who left with their wills in their hands. They charged just $99 for the wills service.

Back in the UK, local authority legal teams have been using the ABS model and many have begun to use specialist local authority legal software in order to become more efficient. This type of software can revolutionise the way that lawyers and ABS’s work by providing access to each and every case for everyone connected with it. Much of this software is hosted in the cloud, which means that it can be accessed from anywhere on a mobile phone or tablet, for instance, by everyone who has the authority to do so. Local authority legal software can also allow fee earners to bill time, track matters, exchange documents, and utilise digital dictation from wherever they happen to be.

DPS Software has been providing local authority legal software to solicitors and local authority legal teams for over 30 years. These legal solutions are used by more than 18,000 users nationally.