Legal services reforms (ABS) could finish many small practices
The new legal services reforms could see a lot of unprepared and smaller law firms go out of business as big high street names will compete in their marketplace for their trade.
From 6th October 2011 the alternative business structure (ABS) will allow law firms to be invested in by bodies outside of the legal profession and will allow for legal services to be offered by organisations outside of the traditional partnership model.
Big names expected to enter the legal services sector include Tesco, Co-op, Halifax and Virgin who will all have big budget advertising campaigns which traditional high street law firms will just not be able to compete with and many will just be steamrolled over in to extinction.
If law firms start preparing for ABS now and embrace the changes there could be opportunities through mergers or accepting outside investment to grow their businesses but they will need to start preparing now or could well find themselves crushed under the corporate juggernauts.
