A ‘shell’ law firm is one that is SRA or CLC regulated, has a limited number of clients, no staff, no premises (ie very few liabilities or assets), but does have a history of holding professional indemnity insurance cover for a period of time.

Typical buyers of shell law firms include new start ups – PII insurance costs can cripple a start up, particularly one that is dealing with conveyancing, commercial property or wills & probate. This is not so much of an issue for litigation firms (eg family, commercial litigation).

Shell law firms with an affordable PII premium do have a value, which varies according to market demand. Firms with claims against their PII rarely have any value as a shell, neither do firms who have actually ceased to trade or are yet to start trading.

If you have a law firm and are looking to run it down with a view to closure, give us a call for a confidential chat.

If you contact the SRA about this, you will quite possibly be informed that “a firm’s SRA authorisation is not a saleable asset” and “we may seek to revoke [ ] where an authorised firm has been sold as a vehicle to another person, thereby allowing them to evade the authorisation process themselves.” Both statements are of course correct but it is not usually the SRA authorisation that buyers are after; it is the professional indemnity insurance history. SRA authorisation tends to be straightforward for most buyers who are already solicitors with clean practising certificates and no disciplinary history.

There are extremely good financial reasons for acquiring an existing firm and continuing it, rather than starting from scratch.

Call us today for a confidential discussion.

It takes on average about 4 weeks to sell an accountancy firm. It takes considerably longer for law firms to sell. As a result, our listings are always overloaded with law firms, with the occasional accountancy practice appearing. Once you list a firm of accountants with us, we will usually have enquiries for you within 48 hours, initial disclosure completed within a week, meetings arranged within 2-3 weeks and a first round of offers within 4 weeks. These will usually be at ‘good’ or ‘exceptional’ levels, which also means that very often one of these is accepted without needing to return to stage 2, which is to explore alternatives as they come in. Usually we will get an additional wave of enquiries between 2 and 6 weeks which opens even more doors for potential sales.

Law firms are very different and take a lot longer to sell – mainly because of the various stumbling blocks along the way – regulatory & professional indemnity insurance issues are the main two. If accountants think they are heavily regulated – try being a solicitor in England & Wales!

Yes and no. For a longer answer, please read our detailed Guide to Buying a Law Firm – click here.

If you are a qualified solicitor with more than three years post qualification experience, then in theory you can own a solicitors firm, regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), and operate the firm yourself as well. SRA rules are here: https://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/firm-based-authorisation/authorisation-recognition/

If you are a licensed conveyancer, then you can own a firm regulated by the Council of Licensed Conveyancers (CLC).

If you are none of these things, then it is still possible for you to own a solicitors firm which is SRA regulated, but it has to be set up as an alternative business structure (ABS). This involves converting a traditional solicitors firm with a structure of a sole trader, partnership, limited liability partnership (LLP), or limited company, and turning it into a regulated ABS.

So, the very specific answer to can you own a law firm if you are not a lawyer, is yes you can, but it depends on the circumstances and the structure of the law firm in question.

For a further discussion on this, please get in touch with us and we would be happy to talk through what you need to do, as well as give you recommendations as to how to do it.

Simply click the link below to fill out our online form and we will register you as a potential buyer. Every week you will receive an email update with any new firms for sale that may be of interest. https://jonathanfagan.co.uk/register-as-a-buyer/

We offer very straightforward fee structures.

Sellers pay no sale fees. We provide advisory & marketing services depending on your circumstances.

Buyers pay a fixed fee, agreed at the outset, at the point a transaction takes place and a deal occurs. No deal, no fee. We also offer advisory & marketing services on request.

Further Details

Our buyer fees depend on the size of the firm for sale and the perceived complexity & involvement for us in any deal. We never change the fee once it has been agreed at the outset, even if the deal takes months to conclude.

We provide premium seller services which include a wide range of services designed to help sellers achieve the best deal for their business. Details of our seller services are here.

Buyers pay a fee if a deal takes place (or you recruit staff from the target firm). List of firms for sale available here.

We provide law firm & accountancy practice valuations. These are available to anyone – whether you looking to purchase or sell a firm or simply take on a new partner. Click here for details.