All Square “actively looking” to become a law firm says chief executive

DANIEL HALL launched All Square in 2012, in response to the bank mis-selling crisis that raged throughout the 2000’s and now he says, the firm is “actively looking” to become a law firm.

The firm are interested in the Alternative Business Structure movement in the legal sector, meaning that non-qualified lawyers can own and run a law firm.

Mr Hall said: “Now you have people from different industries entering the legal market with different training and experience, and who view opportunities differently. It is certainly interesting times for the legal market.

“New entrants like us are challenging status quo and getting results.”

The firm has 18 people with new recruits every month, and are moving to offices on South Parade with 2,000 sq ft of room for growth in centre of Leeds.

The firm also has offices in London and Glasgow as of last year.

The entrepreneur previously held sales and capital markets roles at Barclays Capital, as well as four years as a treasury & capital Markets consultant at Deloitte, and has a unique perspective on the issues surrounding the mis-selling of complex banking products.

He said: “Having worked at Barclays I understood the approach of banks and financial institutions and wanted to help clients secure redress and compensation from the banks.”

Mr Hall saw a gap in the market for his expertise in the banking sector “which not all law firms have” he said.

“We’ve helped hundreds of businesses across Yorkshire and the UK with products that were sold in the early 2000’s. Now we’re seeing other products being missold from places like Yorkshire and Clydesdale Banks, such as tailored business loans, which are complex and high value, and assisting businesses with foreign currency products.”

Though the original wave of mis-selling may have happened before the credit crunch, Mr Hall said that was down to banking culture, “there’s a very aggressive sales culture in banks some are totally driven by commission and bonus payments; the more they sold the more commission they got.

“Because of that culture, products were not always explained properly. In products like these there is always a risk, and some banks would misrepresent these risks,leading to mis-selling on a widespread scale.”

Mr Hall said it was a David and Goliath situation. “Businesses are not always familiar with and don’t understand fully the implications of these products.”

“it’s about rebalancing that relationship between the bank and the business. We’ve got great results, getting businesses millions in compensation over the years.

“Awareness is an issue as well – businesses will know they have a problem but not know if they can do anything about it.” The firm gets referrals from accountants who are in a position to identify and deal with these situations.

Things have changed, said Mr Hall, after LNT’s Lawrence Tomlinson and his report on the Royal Bank of Scotland’s Global Restructuring Group, and the Panorama documentary that shed light on a murky subject.

He said: “Less mis-selling is occurring because the banks realise these products have been missold and banks have looked at the sales process and made it more compliant.

“Despite these improvements, there’s still an underlying culture of it being target driven, such as five or 10 years ago in a less controlled and more relaxed market, when it was more open to abuse.

“Relationship managers have sales targets and are still incentivised to push products. It hasn’t been eradicated but there is less of it.”