I have attended a number of seminars and read a number of different articles regarding alternative business structures that are due to be permitted from October 2011. As I understand it, a ‘manager’, who may be a butcher, a baker or a candlestick maker, would be able to participate in the provision of legal services, providing they pass a threshold ‘fit and proper’ test.

Whether you agree or disagree with this, there appears to be one slight anomaly that I have encountered. I recently made an enquiry to the SRA regarding the possibility of a trainee solicitor within my firm becoming a ‘member’ of an ABS, either by way of a partnership or a director/shareholding arrangement within a limited company.

The information I have been given suggests this may not be possible due to the obligations and duties of a trainee solicitor and their training principal. If this is correct, this means that from October a person with absolutely no experience in providing legal services or any legal training, providing they meet the threshold ‘fit and proper’ test, can be a manager within an ABS, yet a trainee solicitor who by definition has some legal experience and training cannot.

Shaun Bowden, Boltons, Farnworth, Bolton