EY's UK law business is two years old. News of its launch in 2015 was greeted with a degree of trepidation in some quarters of the market, given the huge potential of a legal services operation backed by the $30bn big four accounting giant.

Two years on, the threat posed by the accountants to the traditional UK legal order remains at the forefront of many managing partners' minds. However, EY's UK financial services law leader Matthew Kellett argues that they are creating a different model.

"It's not a zero sum game," says Kellett, rebutting the idea that EY is aiming to eat the lunch of traditional law firms. "We are seeing the beginning of the emergence of 'big four law' as its own sector in the UK and globally," he says.

So as the accounting giants continue to make inroads in law, what stage is EY at in its mission to create a new model for the delivery of legal services in the UK?

EY, which has legal operations in 66 countries around the world, launched its UK legal services team in March 2015, after receiving an alternative business structure licence from the Solicitors Regulation Authority in December 2014.

Its legal business is split into two main divisions – one handling corporate, employment and commercial matters, led by former Addleshaw Goddard corporate head Philip Goodstone; and a financial services division led by former Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) finance head Kellett.

Overall, the team now has a headcount of 85, including lawyers, trainees, paralegals and support staff, of which Goodstone says: "If we had been offered this two years ago we would have been delighted."

The legal team's hierarchy mirrors that of the wider EY business, rather than that of a traditional law firm, with partners leading teams of executive directors, senior managers, managers, seniors and graduates. EY Law has not yet promoted anyone internally to partner, but Goodstone says that it is one of its aims.

"As the business matures, our ambition is that our future partners will be predominantly from internal promotes – although we will of course continue to look at strategic opportunities to make lateral hires," he says.

The business currently has five partners: Goodstone, Kellett, ex-Addleshaws partners Paul Devitt and Richard Thomas, and former Gowling WLG partner Richard Goold, alongside seven executive directors, including former Addleshaws competition head Phil McDonnell and former BLP partner Matthew Whalley. It also offers training contracts, and took on four trainees in 2016 followed by four more this year

Under Goodstone, EY has launched an M&A law practice, based in Manchester, led by Devitt and Thomas. The practice got up and running in earnest this June after the pair were held to a year of gardening leave by their former firm.

It has also set up a technology practice, led by Goold, whose transactions since joining last year include advising tech company Kyocera on its December acquisition of IT services company Annodata.

Goodstone says the model the legal arm will follow will be to identify sectors where EY's wider business is strong and build teams in those areas.

"I expect us to look at other sectors in the coming months. We will choose those sectors by reference to where EY is strong, where we can find the right talent, and where there is a realistic ambition to build a market-leading practice in that sector over a five- to seven-year period," he says.

Kellett adds that the financial services team, which is set to be 25-strong by May, is "in terms of size, right up there in the top 10 to 12 in the City for law".

He notes that the team has been working alongside its non-law counterparts at EY, advising on areas such as banking, capital markets and wealth management, with a particular focus on financial regulatory matters. It is currently advising banking clients on issues such as ringfencing and internal structuring to safeguard against negative fallout from the UK's exit from the EU.

Goodstone and Kellett are tight-lipped about key clients; however, it won a spot on BT's legal panel last month and is also understood to advise a clutch of banks and financial institutions.

EY has also launched what Goodstone calls a "centre of excellence" for transactional support in Belfast, led by a former director from alternative legal provider Axiom. That team is now six-strong and is being used to "road-test" particular technologies with the aim of becoming "famous for technical innovation", according to Goodstone

While the impact of the accountants on the UK legal market has not yet been as seismic as some have predicted, EY remains in growth mode.

Goodstone is bullish about the future prospects for the business, remaining convinced that this new legal model has a bright future.

"Our ambition over the next two years is to continue to deliver on our strategic ambition – we are building a diverse, technology-enabled team, which is both a fully integrated part of EY and the services it offers to clients globally and which will be renowned for legal services in a number of sectors and markets," he concludes.