The announcement last week that Lyceum Capital, a mid-market private equity house, is devoting considerable resources to the legal sector and is already actively exploring private equity investment in legal services businesses is another sign that the market is gearing up for the change permitted by the Legal Services Act. I am a member of the advisory board that was established by Lyceum Capital.
The Legal Services Act enables law firms to take outside capital or, indeed, for new businesses owned by non-lawyers to provide legal services. It is important to appreciate that this enabling legislation does not force or require firms to change their business or ownership model. They only need to do so and will only do so if they see clear advantages to themselves and significant opportunities to develop the quality and range of clients that they are able to act for.
