Burning platforms

While the first Legal Business and Marsh risk management survey two years ago examined the need for a risk management function, and last year’s report looked at the very specific challenges facing firms in the teeth of a global recession, this year finds firms very much needing to get in shape. Talk is cheap, and the emphasis now is on getting risk management and compliance teams ready to tackle the fresh structures and regulatory pressures in a new decade.

As firms catch their breath as we emerge from recession in 2010, the temptation may be to sit back and relax. But now is the time to implement those lessons learned in the downturn. Two major developments that cannot be ignored or avoided are just around the corner: the arrival of legal process outsourcing (LPO) into the mainstream, and the fact that alternative business structures (ABSs) will be a possibility from next year.

The next two years could see more upheavals for law firms. On 1 January 2010, the Legal Services Board (LSB) formally went live with its remit as oversight regulator of all the approved regulators of the profession, including the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). This means it will have ultimate responsibility for regulating both ABSs and legal disciplinary practices in the new era, and the profession as a whole within that structure.

To read the rest of this article subscribe to Legal Business.