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28 March 2012, Antony Townsend, SRA Chief Executive:

"We're delighted to announce the first ABS organisations. This represents a milestone we have been working towards for nearly two years. The arrival of ABS should foster a more flexible and innovative market for legal services. By stimulating competition and encouraging innovation, we should see consumers' experiences enjoy a major boost.

“We've had to create a system of authorisation flexible enough to deal with a range of companies with hugely varying corporate structures, but that's also robust enough to apply the same stringent suitability criteria by which traditional firms are judged. We make no apology for ensuring that the systems we have in place are thorough and in some cases, time-consuming."