SRA finally gives the green light to Duke Street/Parabis

After many months of waiting, Parabis Group has finally obtained approval from the SRA to become an alternative business structure - the first private-equity backed firm to take up the business model.

Private equity firm Duke Street agreed last year to invest in Parabis, which owns Plexus Law and Cogent Law, but it has been a long drawn out process to obtain regulatory consents to the transaction. The SRA has attracted some criticism for the time delays in issuing licences since the new regime began in January, although over the summer there has been some pick-up in the rate of authorisations, with 20 approvals now having been granted.  The Parabis transaction, being the first time the SRA had had to consider a private equity backed structure, was always going to attract close scrutiny, but Duke Street will be happy now to be able to move on to the next phase.  

The licence now gives the green light to the group to start pursuing the group's buy-and-build strategy.  it is understood that Parabis Chief Executive Tim Oliver is already in discussions with a number of firms, and hopes to complete at least one transaction during 2012.  The longer term aim is to have its law firm business sitting amongst the UK top 20 firms, but also to transform the wider business into a full scale business process outsourcer.