LawVest to press ahead with 'market disrupting' ABS plans as launch enters advanced stages

LawVest, the holding company part-owned by DLA Piper, is gearing up for a formal launch of its legal services operation later this month.

The much-touted company, which was initially set up in May last year to take advantage of opportunities presented by the Legal Services Act, is now in "very advanced pre-launch plans", according to chief executive Karl Chapman (pictured).

LawVest will operate as an alternative business structure (ABS), but the LawVest name will not be the brand taken to market. The company, which has since May been raising investor capital to fund legal services acquisitions, says it will deploy a "market-disrupting brand, pricing and service delivery model".

DLA Piper took a minority stake in the business in October last year, with managing partner Nigel Knowles appointed as non-executive chairman.

Chapman is also the founder of AdviserPlus Business Solutions, an outsourcer of human resources, employment law and health and safety services, which part-owns LawVest alongside DLA and a number of individual shareholders.

Chapman – who heads up LawVest alongside chief operating officer Adam Shutkever, a former Deutsche Bank managing director and qualified barrister – said: "We are very advanced in our pre-launch plans. We are having great fun and when this goes live – under a different brand – people will be surprised at what we are doing."

Aside from its ties to DLA Piper, LawVest has been pegged as an especially interesting ABS prospect, as it has a corporate rather than consumer law focus, although it has not yet revealed what services it intends to offer.

The majority of the major ABS developments to date have focused on the high street market, including private equity firm Duke Street Capital's purchase of a majority stake in personal injury (PI) litigation firm Parabis Group and Quindell Portfolio's £19m acquisition of Liverpool PI firm Silverbeck Rymer.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has said that it hopes to license its first ABSs towards the end of this month, with those that took part in the regulator's licensing trial last year – including LawVest – pegged for a speedier approval process than the typical six-month schedule.

The SRA began accepting first-stage licence applications on 3 January and as Legal Week went to press had received a total of 96.