A consultancy with an initial mandate to acquire 25 law firms on behalf of larger practices was formally launched this week. The new business is also offering other services to support smaller firms – including putting them together to bid for large work contracts.

The Clarity Legal group is the brainchild of David Green, chief executive of volume practice MTA Solicitors, based in Kent and Manchester, and Stephen Allen, former chief executive of 7 Bedford Row chambers in London.

GTA & Company, which is part of the group, has been retained by four large firms – including MTA – to acquire other practices in a bid to add millions to their bottom lines. MTA has made its first acquisition, Cambridge firm Crossmans.

GTA has also been retained by two retail banks and a national accountancy firm to help their struggling law firm clients protect and realise their assets.

Meanwhile, Clarity Support Services offers outsourced front and back-office support to law firms – everything could be outsourced except the actual legal work, Allen said. He claimed that one City law firm client has slashed its £320,000 spend on cashiering by 75% following outsourcing.

Clarity is also acting as a bid procurement vehicle, bidding for bulk work on behalf of a panel of firms that could not tender for such contracts on their own. Allen recently put together a consortium of seven firms that has so far got through the first two rounds of tendering for a contract to advise a consortium of eight London boroughs.

Allen envisages extending the model to tendering for legal aid work when that process begins, with Clarity controlling quality through service-level agreements.

The group has also gone live with Clarity Connections, a ‘work swap’ facility that allows firms to pass on work they ­cannot handle to other panel members under a ‘no poach’ agreement. They would also receive a referral fee.

The company is set to advertise the services of its members and create a law broking service to help the public find the right lawyer, in terms of experience and geographical location.

Allen said: ‘It has never been more difficult for small to medium law firms to stand their ground and compete in what has become a very tough market. To stay afloat, these law firms will need to radically re-engineer their current business development and back-office support processes.’