Deloitte has become the final member of the Big Four to receive an alternative business structure (ABS) licence, as the accountancy giant follows its rivals in pushing into the legal services market.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has confirmed that Deloitte was granted a licence to provide legal services on 30 May, with the licence coming into effect last week (15 June).

The accountancy firm has been licensed for rights of audience, conduct of litigation, reserved instrument activities, probate activities and administration of oaths. Deloitte may continue to carry out exempt regulated activities, provided that the activities are "complementary to the firm's reserved legal activities or other legal activities".

The SRA also states that a term of the licence is that a Deloitte solicitor may not act for a client where there is a conflict of interest with the firm's existing work, unless the client has given informed consent and safeguards can be put in place.

Deloitte partner Anbreen Khan is listed as head of legal practice on the SRA register.

Deloitte is the last of the Big Four accountancy firms to make the ABS move after PwC, KPMG and EY were all awarded licences in 2014. PwC has ABS licences for both its legal arm, PwC Legal, and its Middle East operations.

ABS licences, first introduced in 2012 under the Legal Services Act, allow companies to run their own legal arms while also making it possible for law firms to accept external investment and be owned by non-lawyers.

In January, Deloitte UK managing partner for tax and legal Matt Ellis told Legal Week that the firm was on the lookout for senior lawyers to lead its drive into the UK legal market.

Deloitte currently has the smallest legal offering within the Big Four. Research from Legal Week parent company ALM's intelligence arm found the firm had 1,800 lawyers, while the other three all have more than 2,000. PwC has the largest legal arm of the Big Four with 2,500, followed by KPMG with 2,200 and EY on 2,100.

Twelve percent of its lawyers are in the Americas, although it does not have a US legal business. The US legal market has restrictions on non-lawyer ownership of law firms, making it a difficult legal market to crack for the Big Four.

Deloitte's UK arm recently sealed an alliance with US immigration firm Berry Appleman & Leiden, a deal that will see it acquire the law firm's operations outside of its home country.

The alliance, which gives BAL access to Deloitte's scale and expertise outside of the US, has seen Deloitte UK acquire the law firm's business outside of the UK, which includes small offices in eight countries including a UK base in London.