Remortgage specialists among new ABSs

Fasttrac Solicitors, a volume conveyancer specialising in remortgage work for lenders, is among the latest firms to become an ABS.

The firm, based in Crewkerne, Somerset, claims on its website that it has “re-engineered the process to meet the needs of borrowers and the standards of lenders” and to ensure that cases were processed more quickly and with greater transparency.

Jonthan Stokes, director of Fasttrac, said: “The application process was very thorough and receiving ABS status will allow Fasttrac to appoint non-lawyers as managers and directors, who bring expertise and talent to the business.

“I believe that law firms need to be run properly as businesses and adopt best corporate practices.”

Ty Arian, which is based in Swansea and specialises in social welfare work, has also become an ABS. The firm is run as a limited company with two directors, and 90 staff.

Serving a very different group of clients and showing the wide range of the new ABSs is Grosvenor Law, a specialist dispute resolution firm in Mayfair, which acts for companies and “high net worth individuals”.

Three more personal injury firms have become ABSs. They are Horwich Farelly, based in Manchester, Chelmsford and Sheffield, which acts mainly for defendants and has more than 400 staff; Law4U, a claimant firm based in Liverpool and Acorn Law, based in Bromley, which markets itself on the basis that it “neither pays nor receives referral fees on any of its personal injury cases”.

Formed in September 2011, Acorn said on its website that it was the first law firm set up “in direct response” to the government’s decision to ban referral fees in personal injury cases.

Its senior partner, David Green, is the managing partner of MTA solicitors in Bromley and Manchester.