Personal injury news roundup: 7 days ended 4 Nov 2012:
Big news this week as a major law firm based in Liverpool announced plans to add around 200 new positions, bringing much needed economic growth to the area.
Silverbeck Rymer, the personal injury solicitor firm, added than an additional 100 staff members will be sought after to be recruited in other areas of teh country such as Hampshire and Essex, where the personal injury claims specialists also have legal offices.
Increasing the firm’s workforce by double, the new expansion efforts by the law firm comes on the heels of Quindell Portfolio’s agreement to purchase the firm lock, stock, and barrel, though the deal cannot be finalised until it is approved by government regulators. Quindell is ready, willing, and able to pay £19.3 million for Silverbeck, with the purchase made possible by the Legal Services Act 2007, as its goal was to increase accessibility and affordability in the legal sector for a wider variety of possible purchasers.
The Act has been dubbed the ‘Tesco law,’ as the new relaxed regulations have made it possible for non-lawyers such as financial service providers and supermarket chains to operate within the legal services sector. All one of these non-lawyers needs to operate their own law practice is to go go either the Council for Licensed Conveyancers or the Solicitors Regulation Authority and obtain status as an Alternative Business Structure, with the only actual lawyer that needs to be involved in the firm being the appointed Head of Legal Practice under the new law.
With non-lawyer companies now able to operate within the legal industry, many smaller law firms have seen this development as an opportunity for growth through the investment from an outside source, with such a deal exemplified in the purchase of Silverbeck by Quindell. This can lead to increased economic recovery as well, especially in similar cases were law firms are quite literally doubling their staff as a result of the expansion, pumping more cash into the economy and providing a living to more Brits eager to get back to work.