Andy Daws, Riverview's vice-president North America, says the 2007 Legal Services Act, which was designed to promote competition, innovation and the public and consumer interest, has made the U.K. «the world's legal laboratory right now,»
where experiments in ownership
structure, service delivery, and
alternative business models are being carried out, with varying degrees of success.
The dawn of
alternative business structures may have led to big changes in Australia, but in Quebec,
where non-lawyers have been allowed to invest in law firms for a decade, not a single law firm has signed up.