Solicitor-run chambers becomes ABS

A set of chambers owned and run by solicitors is one of the latest firms to have obtained an ABS license.

Eastgate Chambers, which specialises in criminal advocacy, is regulated by the SRA and has three solicitor directors. It is based in Stafford and Cannock and was set up by Chris Clark Solicitors and Estate Agents.

The four directors of Eastgate Chambers are Chris Clark, his wife and office manager Margaret Clark, Peter Hemming and Stephen Sheldon, who are both solicitors. Clark will be both the COLP and COFA.

MTA Solicitors, based in Bromley and Manchester, has also obtained approval for its ABS license.

MTA covers a wide range of civil law, including personal injury, employment and commercial work, and operates a number of brands.

One of them, LawStore, currently has a shop at the Glades shopping centre in Bromley, which opened in 2010.

A spokesman for the MTA said last summer that the plan was for law firms to be offered the chance to join a panel and receive referrals “through the unique combination of the LawStore website, the LawStore contact centre and the high street shops, which they can also help set up and run.”

David Green, managing partner of MTA (pictured), will also be the firm’s COFA. Green is also the senior partner of Acorn Law, based in Bromley, which obtained an ABS license last month.

Acorn Law 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.

GPB solicitors, which specialises in debt recovery, Pearson Hinchcliffe and Parkinson Wright also obtained ABS licenses, taking the total number to 88.