Like all in local government, lawyers are dealing with the many changes in ways of working, especially the advent of commissioning councils and de-regulation of the legal market place. This has attracted their attention to the new kid on the deregulation block otherwise known as the alternative business structure (ABS), an entity for legal trading introduced by the Legal Services Act 2007. A reason for this is that professional conduct rules prevent local authority solicitors from acting other than for their local authority or a public body added to the schedule to the Local Authority Goods and Services Act 1970. ABS will in local government be local authority controlled companies licenced by the Solicitor Regulation Authority and it will be interesting to see the outcome of applications by the first authorities, HB Law and Buckinghamshire.
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