Gateley and Weightmans awarded ABS status
BIRMINGHAM law firm Gateley and Weightmans, which has a Birmingham office, have both been granted alternative business structure (ABS) licences which will allow them to bring non-lawyers into their firms.
Under ABS, law firms can change their ownership arrangements away from shareholding partnerships to structures more aligned to non-legal businesses such as banks, insurance companies and financial services firms.
They can also launch different types of products and services.
Irwin Mitchell, which also has a Birmingham office, was the first law firm to go down the ABS route.
Gateley’s senior partner in England Michael Ward said: “With management of law firms becoming ever more competitive we can see that’s it’s something which will happen more and more and we just felt that was the right thing to do to have flexibility.”
Gateley currently has 150 partners and boasts an average profit per equity partner of £262,000.
The move to an ABS means the firm could apply for external investment but, Ward, quoted in The Lawyer, said that was not currently on the agenda.
”We don’t have any imminent need for outside investment but looking forward next five to ten years there may come a time when that seems appropriate,” he said.
The ABS licence will cover the Gateley’s offices in Birmingham, Leicester, Leeds, Manchester and Nottingham but not its Scottish offices where ABS is not recognised.
Weightmans has also received an ABS licence as approved by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
John Schorah, Weightmans’ managing partner said: “We are delighted to receive our ABS licence ahead of the new year. This approved business model, confirms our total dedication to being as versatile and flexible as we possibly can, to ensure we can grow, change and adapt providing a high quality and coherent service for our clients.”
