ABS status triggers BT Law launch

The telecoms giant BT has announced the launch of a new legal wing of its business following the decision by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) to grant the firm ABS status.

BT Law Limited will incorporate the claims-management firm BT Claims and will initially operate in the motor claims market. Solicitor Miles Jobling, Head of Litigation and Employment Law at BT Group, will head up the new firm, which will be based at offices in London, Bletchley and Sheffield.

‘This [ABS] licence now gives us the perfect platform to take this much further forward and means we can deliver whole new areas of support for our existing clients as well as hopefully developing many new relationships,’ Mr Jobling said. ‘As we carry the BT name, we understand just how important it is to best represent and protect our clients’ brands, which will remain as a main component of our service strategy.’

BT is the largest firm to date to have acquired an ABS licence. Commenting on the launch of BT Law, Peter Gavin of Stoke-based Freeth Cartwright suggested that law firms would be ‘put on their guard’.

‘Law firms have felt protected and isolated from the commercial arena for a long time, but that is all changing,’ he said. ‘Legal firms are addressing their approach and seeing themselves more as businesses, with some firms defining their territory as “stack it high and sell it cheap” and others choosing to remain aloof from the fray and continue with a traditional approach.’

Mark Dugdale