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25 February 2011 / Dr Jon Robins
Issue: 7454 / Categories: Opinion , Legal services , Profession
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An unfair divide

Is the ban on law firms hiving off unreserved legal work through associated entities the regulatory breach in the profession’s defences that will enable those new entrants to storm a newly liberalised legal services market?

Part 3: Jon Robins confronts an uncomfortable reality for lawyers

Is the profession’s failure to address the separate business rule “the equivalent of the Maginot line”, ponders Neil Kinsella, the senior executive of one of the largest claimant firms Russell Jones & Walker. Or, to put it another way, is the ban on law firms hiving off unreserved legal work through associated entities the regulatory breach in the profession’s defences that will enable those new entrants to storm a newly liberalised legal services market?

Radical change

This is the third and final article in a series exploring the consequences for a profession going through rapid and radical change where some 80% of its work falls outside the protection of “reserved” legal work (see 160 NLJ 7444, p 1662 & NLJ, 7 January 2011, p 7). Most practitioners

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

mfg Solicitors—Hayley Pearce & Lauren Williams

mfg Solicitors—Hayley Pearce & Lauren Williams

Law firm mfg Solicitors announces promotions at Ludlow office

Womble Bond Dickinson—Richard Sharpe

Womble Bond Dickinson—Richard Sharpe

Womble Bond Dickinson appoints partner in Leeds residential team

Brabners—six promotions

Brabners—six promotions

Brabners adds six to partnership in record year for partner promotions

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