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Fergus Payne
FeatureLLPs catch their second wind
It is hard to foresee rapid movement away from the LLP model in the short-term.
OpinionThe legal year ahead
Alternative business structures? Mergers? Professional indemnity insurance? What will be the hot topics in 2015?
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Consolidation in the legal sector
Recent times have given us two interesting announcements in relation to current merger trends. First, Norton Rose said that it will merge with the US firm, Fulbright & Jaworski. This is set to make the merged firm join the top 10 law firms globally, both by revenue and number of ...
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Direct age discrimination
The recent Supreme Court decision in Seldon v Clarkson Wright and Jakes [2012] UKSC 16 – which found that direct age discrimination could be justified and clarified the test for justification that would have to be satisfied – continues to reverberate throughout the legal industry and fuel the debate over ...
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Changing law firms' culture
Recently, the legal press has been full of reports of firms applying for alternative business structure (ABS) status. Notably, in the last couple of weeks we have learnt that Irwin Mitchell’s application has been granted and that insurance firm Parabis is set for a £50m cash injection after being granted ...
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ABSs and the potential lock-in of individuals
The legal press is full of articles on the new alternative business structures (ABSs) and the so-called Tesco Law revolution of legal services. A number of major law firms have confirmed that they are seriously considering the option to converting to an ABS and we have already seen high-profile third-party ...
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LLPs 10 years on
In fact, limited liability partnerships (LLPs) have been with us for just over 11 years since their introduction in April 2001. Although it was possible to operate a law firm as a limited company prior to 2001, an LLP has been viewed as a more obvious alternative to a traditional ...
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OFR: the first stumbling block?
So where are we after six months of operating under outcomes-focused regulation (OFR)? Well the world hasn’t ended, the profession hasn’t imploded and we haven’t seen any public floggings. We have of course seen some high-profile criminal charges against individuals caught appropriating funds from their firms which hasn’t done the ...
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The current legal landscape
To describe the current legal landscape as interesting would be a real understatement. You could say that a perfect storm is brewing. A variety of different factors mean that the legal sector is undergoing significant change and firms of all sizes need to rise to the challenges they are facing. ...