DLA-backed LawVest targets volume market with team of solicitors & QCs
DLA-backed venture LawVest has assembled a team of solicitors and barristers to handle volume fixed-fee work, as details emerge of the legal services company's new-look business model. The company, which has launched under the trading name Riverview Law, will offer a range of legal services including commoditised work such as small debt collection, remortgaging and low-value litigation.
February 17, 2012 at 10:10 AM
5 minute read
DLA-backed venture LawVest has assembled a team of solicitors and barristers to handle volume fixed-fee work, as details emerge of the legal services company's new-look business model.
The company, which has launched under the trading name Riverview Law, is split into two arms, Riverview Solicitors and Riverview Chambers, with the solicitors arm led by senior partner Andrew Reeves and the chambers by chief executive and barrister Chris Baylis.
The company will offer fixed-fee commoditised legal advice on a range of matters including contracts, company law, data protection, disputes, employment, finance, insurance, intellectual property, IT and property.
The chambers arm of the business will provide access to a line-up of QCs and barristers including silks from 1 Hare Court, 11 South Square, Outer Temple Chambers and Five Paper Buildings, including Jonathan Caplan QC, who recently represented Associated Newspapers editor-in-chief Paul Dacre at the Leveson Inquiry.
The model will see a mix of barristers that are self-employed and remain members of their chambers as well as barristers who are full-time employees of Riverview.
The majority of Riverview's staff will be based in the Wirral. The company's pre-launch recruitment last year saw it advertise employed barrister and solicitor roles with an annual salary of between £30,000 and £60,000 for barristers and up to £30,000 for solicitors.
The company said that its focus is to provide businesses of all sizes with cost-effective, fixed-fee legal advice. The model will allow businesses with up to 1,000 employees to buy annual contracts from £200 per month for all their day-to-day legal support, or receive a fixed price quote for a particular piece of work. Meanwhile, large organisations can outsource their in-house legal function to Riverview Law, also at a fixed price.
LawVest chief executive Karl Chapman said: "With Riverview Law we're applying common sense business principles to a market that has been protected from real competition for too long.
"We have many advantages law firms don't have; we started with a blank piece of paper, we spent time talking to businesses about what they want, and then we designed an operating and customer service model that delivers it – top lawyers, legal assistants and customer support people, combined with end-to-end technology and low overheads.
"Some law firms have already said to us that it won't work because it's impossible to deliver comprehensive fixed pricing. Our response is simple: 'Maybe you can't deliver fixed pricing, but we can.'"
DLA Piper is intending to use its ties to the company to funnel through low-value volume work from existing clients. The transatlantic firm took a minority stake in the business in October last year, with managing partner Nigel Knowles (pictured) appointed as non-executive chairman.
The company will operate as an alternative business structure (ABS), with LawVest remaining the name of the parent holding company.
One DLA Piper partner said: "The idea is to take advantage of an end of the market we're not in and invest in something that's likely to be successful. It also means we can look after legacy clients that might be more appropriately serviced by LawVest. Smaller and more modest clients are better served by lower charge-out rates on a different leverage basis.
"For low-value, high-volume type business it is a better and more efficient model. This kind of work is more prone to systemisation, as opposed to the intense input at a high level that characterises much of DLA Piper's work. I think it's a good strategy."
LawVest, which was set up to take advantage of opportunities presented by the Legal Services Act (LSA), has since May been raising investor capital to fund legal services acquisitions and has said it will deploy a "market-disrupting brand, pricing and service delivery model".
The company's formal launch comes after last October's implementation of the LSA, which has already made a significant impact on the legal market, although to date the developments have mainly resonated in the consumer market rather than the corporate sphere.
The Act, which was intended to increase competition to make legal services more accessible to consumers, has seen a flurry of early activity involving acquisitive law firms, private equity houses and personal injury businesses.
The early weeks of 2012 have seen private equity firm Duke Street Capital take of a majority stake in personal injury (PI) litigation firm Parabis Group, while Australia's Slater & Gordon, the world's first publicly listed law firm, acquired UK personal injury specialist law firm Russell Jones & Walker in a £53.8m deal
Liverpool-based PI firm Silverbeck Rymer was also recently taken over by software and outsourcing firm Quindell Portfolio in a deal valued at £19.3m.
Meanwhile, BT is also set for a push into the legal services market with the news that its claims management arm, BT Claims, has applied to become an ABS.
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