First published in Managing Partner
Over the past few months the pace at which some legal practices have begun to move to meet the new challenges and tap into the new opportunities being created by the Legal Services Act and move to respond to alternative business structures has quickened dramatically. More laeyers are actively taking calculated risks to change their business now to reinforce or reposition themselves to respond to the Legal Services Act – particularly mid-market legal practices.
These are not new entrants to the legal market, but legal practices which are (or are becoming) innovative, enthusiastic and agile enough to work alongside business partners from outside in developing new and better ways of providing legal services that provide a better value proposition and client experience. Most legal practices are likely to remain as an LLP for now, but more should consider the potential benefits of a legal disciplinary practice (LDP), together with non-lawyers, or become an alternative business structure (ABS) if there are opportunities you can tap into this way.
In legal practice, you want to make sure your lawyers use whatever new freedoms the Legal Services Act creates for you. But what can you do to make your practice more competitiive?
