The ever-accelerating disintegration of the highly respected law firm of Dewey & LeBoeuf brings to mind certain “what if” questions and other observations. A question that comes to mind is: Could there have been a different outcome to the Dewey & LeBoeuf debacle if it had made what appears to have been ill-advised management decisions in the context of a different regulatory regimeone that permitted a different capital structure?
The question arises because law firms in England and Wales are currently undergoing a regulatory revolution that some have likened to the “Big Bang” changes in the financial industry in the UK a generation earlier. Under legislation enacted by Parliament a few years ago, English solicitors, who make up the bulk of providers of legal services in England and Wales, have been permitted to propose and have accepted “alternative business structures” (ABSs), that allow for a variety of arrangements among lawyers and non-lawyers, including equity ownership of providers of legal services by non-lawyers. So far, the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) has permitted only a handful of ABSs to start functioning.
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