The former president of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers has steered his firm to alternative business structure status.

David Bott, who stood down as president in April, will bring practice manager Paul Hinchcliffe and finance manager Gary Froggatt, both non-solicitors, into equity partner status at Bott & Co (Hinchcliffe, Bott and Froggatt are pictured left to right).

The north-west personal injury specialist is now the 30th ABS approved by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. In a statement, Bott said the change in status ‘increases our readiness’ to take on the changes that will arise from the Jackson reforms next April.

Hinchcliffe added: ‘We will use this ABS licence as a springboard to developing the business and show the world how modern and forward-thinking we are.’

Bott was a vocal critic of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act, most of which comes into force next year, last year describing the cuts to legal aid and restrictions to no win, no fee as a ‘savage blow’ to patients who had suffered an injury.

Bott & Co was founded in 2011 by Bott, Hinchcliffe and Froggatt.

In 2011/12 it posted a turnover of £12.9m, of which £471,386 was profit. It has 10 solicitors among 30 fee-earners at offices in Cheshire and London.