James O’connell

James O’Connell feels a sense of déjà vu over alternative business structures

Little attention has been paid to a quiet revolution so profound that many solicitors’ firms may end up as quasi-alternative business structures. For over a decade, firms have been employing paralegals in ever greater numbers. They have also been delegating ever more complex, client-facing, work to paralegals. That fact is old news; what’s new is that we are approaching the point when paralegal fee-earners in firms may begin to outnumber solicitors—where solicitors become a minority in their own profession.