Established in Australia in 2017. UK offering follows recent regulatory changes and confirms market appetite.Former in-house lawyer team in the UK, Australia and New Zealand already providing pragmatic advice to GCs.
LOD has established LOD Legal, a challenger to more traditional law firm models. Staffed by over 30 former in-house lawyers, LOD Legal is already providing external legal advice to clients in the UK, Australia and New Zealand.
Learning from LOD Legal in Australia, which was established in 2017, LOD Legal began advising selected UK clients following the new SRA Standards and Regulations, which came into effect on 25 November 2019. The new rules allow solicitors in England & Wales to provide their services in new ways outside of traditional law firm structures, whilst still being subject to individual regulation.
LOD Legal is supported by technology, project management and service design specialists and augments LOD’s existing service lines. Clients are now able to access immediate law firm support through LOD Legal, long-term arrangements through LOD Managed Services, interim resourcing through LOD Secondments and guidance on long-term legal strategy through LOD Innovation & Design.
Simon Harper said: “We’ve always looked to make the most of market developments to give in-house teams interesting new options. LOD Legal is about building the next piece in that jigsaw – a law firm for in-house lawyers, by in-house lawyers. This is about somewhere to do the everyday work that traditional law firms weren’t designed for.”
He added: “The demand for LOD Legal means that we’re in the market to hire senior in-house lawyers in the UK to help take it to the next level. We have recently welcomed Maria Passemard, former head of legal ops at John Lewis Partnership, to LOD and that’s just the calibre of person we’re looking to attract here.”