By Neil Rose


Legal executives and barristers will effectively be able to run their own law firms in 18 months' time, it has emerged.



With Parliament sitting again next week and the Legal Services Bill set to finish its passage over the next month, the Gazette can reveal that the Bill only requires legal disciplinary partnerships (LDPs) to have one solicitor-partner.



LDPs, which will also be allowed to have 25% of partners who are non-lawyers, are a stepping stone to alternative business structures (ABSs). But while ABSs need a new licensing regime to be created, LDPs will come into being in around 18 months' time, once the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has put rules for them in place.



The Gazette understands that the SRA has no plans to use those rules to increase the minimum number of solicitor-partners an LDP must have, meaning that, hypothetically, 20 legal executives could set up in partnership with one solicitor to make it an LDP.



An SRA spokeswoman said: 'We don't see a problem with LDPs that might involve a minority of solicitors. The aim of the Bill is better regulation of all providers of legal services and greater freedom for consumers.'



The Institute of Legal Executives welcomed the LDP provisions. Chief executive Diane Burleigh said: 'The creation of LDPs represent a significant opportunity for our members to finally head up businesses of their own. We have been arguing for some time that such businesses should pose no more concern for consumers than the traditional solicitor-only business.'



A Law Society spokesman said: 'The question of whether or not there should be a minimum number of solicitors in an SRA-regulated law firm will need to be considered in the course of the consultation on making the rules.'



See also Dawn of a new era (Features)