By Nathan Koppel
You say you wanna revolution?? Well, let?s head across the pond then and check out a new law in England and Wales that allows non-lawyers to sell legal services.
Under the Legal Services Act, which takes effect today, banks, supermarkets and the like can offer legal services to consumers, according to this BBC report on the new law.
These would-be competitors to law firms can create what are called Alternative Business Structures, which will offer a one-stop stop of? legal and financial advice to consumers, according to the BBC, which notes that some regulatory kinks still must be ironed out before solicitors can join the alternative structures. (Here?s another report on the new law from The Lawyer.)
Proponents say the Legal Services Act will give consumers more choice when seeking professional advice. ?Potential customers will find legal services become more accessible, more efficient and more competitive,? Justice Minister Jonathan Djanogly told BBC.
But some English lawyers, not surprisingly, are skeptical of the new law.
?The government seem unconcerned that the introduction of Alternative Business Structures puts at risk the independence of legal advice, via the profit interests of commercial owners,? Clive Sutton, of the Solicitors Sole Practitioners Group, told BBC.
One U.S. firm likely to keep close tabs of the Legal Services Act is Jacoby & Meyers; the plaintiffs? firm, as we have noted, has filed lawsuits that seek to force New York, New Jersey and Connecticut to change their laws to allow non-lawyers to own stakes in law firms.
Source: http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2011/10/06/a-legal-revolution-is-underway-in-england/
alley boy alley boy morgan freeman bristol palin bethenny frankel orlando brown orlando brown
Keine Kommentare:
Kommentar veröffentlichen