The move, which has been heralded by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) as a ‘stepped approach’ to the full introduction of ABSs, underlines the
Recent amendments to the Bill, which was formally unveiled at the end of last year, will allow non-lawyers to comprise up to 25%
of law firm partnerships by the end of 2008.
However, the reforms will limit the range of suitable non-lawyer partners to other professionals offering business services that dovetail with law, such as tax and conveyancing.
The changes are likely to re-ignite interest in the bill after minister Bridget Prentice earlier this year conceded that much of the new legislation was unlikely to come into effect until 2011.
However, City firms remain sceptical with many doubting the eventual impact of the reforms.
Travers Smith managing partner Chris Carroll said: “It seems unlikely that any of the blue-blood City firms will do much about this. It is hard enough for us to persuade ourselves to make lawyers up to partner, let alone non-lawyers.”
Other observers have been more enthusiastic about the changes with Simon Hodson, senior partner at Beachcroft, commenting: “This is the evolutionary step proposed by Clementi, not revolution. It will give firms the option to profit-share with their non-legal professionals and to fulfil client demand.”
Russell Wallman, director of government relations at the Law Society, told Legal Week: “We are very pleased these changes have been tabled and we hope this will go through by the end of the year. These changes do not raise such difficult issues; they can be regulated under the existing regime.”
An MoJ spokesperson said the proposed amendments would “enable both consumers and providers to benefit at the earliest opportunity from liberalisation”.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority is currently drafting a timetable for the introduction of new guidelines for regulating multi-disciplinary partnerships and non-lawyer partners.
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