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14 July 2023
Issue: 8033 / Categories: Legal News , Legal services , Career focus , Profession
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NLJ this week: Thinking of setting up a legal consultancy?

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The rise of legal consultants has been a game-changer for lawyers who want to work independently, manage their own caseload, and reduce the burdens of self-employment. In this week’s NLJ, Adrian Jaggard, CEO at AllC Group & Taylor Rose MW, looks ahead to the expansion of this model of working—research suggests one third of lawyers will work this way by 2026—and offers advice on how to prepare now for the changes to come.

Typically, lawyers act as self-employed consultants, retaining about 70% of their earnings, with the consultancy firm providing the overarching structure and support. As Jaggard writes, consultants can also ‘scale their operation within a lean environment, recruiting their own consultants and employees’. Law firms such as Taylor Rose MW, which has 700 fee-earners in its consultancy division as well as its traditional practice, also benefit. In fact, the firm is now expanding its consultancy division into Australia.

Jaggard also shares some tips and advice for firms considering launching a consultancy division—find them here.

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Freeths—Rachel Crosier

Freeths—Rachel Crosier

Projects and rail practices strengthened by director hire in London

DWF—Stephen Hickling

DWF—Stephen Hickling

Real estate team in Birmingham welcomes back returning partner

Ward Hadaway—44 appointments

Ward Hadaway—44 appointments

Firm invests in national growth with 44 appointments across five offices

NEWS
Refusing ADR is risky—but not always fatal. Writing in NLJ this week, Masood Ahmed and Sanjay Dave Singh of the University of Leicester analyse Assensus Ltd v Wirsol Energy Ltd: despite repeated invitations to mediate, the defendant stood firm, made a £100,000 Part 36 offer and was ultimately ‘wholly vindicated’ at trial
The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 transformed criminal justice. Writing in NLJ this week, Ed Cape of UWE and Matthew Hardcastle and Sandra Paul of Kingsley Napley trace its ‘seismic impact’
Operational resilience is no longer optional. Writing in NLJ this week, Emma Radmore and Michael Lewis of Womble Bond Dickinson explain how UK regulators expect firms to identify ‘important business services’ that could cause ‘intolerable levels of harm’ if disrupted
Criminal juries may be convicting—or acquitting—on a misunderstanding. Writing in NLJ this week Paul McKeown, Adrian Keane and Sally Stares of The City Law School and LSE report troubling survey findings on the meaning of ‘sure’
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has narrowly preserved a key weapon in its anti-corruption arsenal. In this week's NLJ, Jonathan Fisher KC of Red Lion Chambers examines Guralp Systems Ltd v SFO, in which the High Court ruled that a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) remained in force despite the company’s failure to disgorge £2m by the stated deadline
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