Latest News

Noel keeps keen eye on the law

The 6 October advent of Alternative Business Structures (ABS) – the so-called “Tesco law” that will allow non-lawyers, such as supermarkets and banks, to invest in and own legal practices – is currently focusing significant attention on the legal world.

Rickard Keen partner Noel Kelleway , who has more than 30 years’ specialist experience in working with a wide range of legal clients, including solicitors, barristers and judges, is taking a keen interest in the impact of ABS on the profession, although he says it’s very much a case of “wait and see”.

“It will be interesting to see whether we go the way of the United States, where you can go into a Walmart store and find a tax consultancy stand alongside the groceries,” he says.

“In practice, big legal firms have always had in-house accountants and the big accountancy firms have always had legal departments – it’s the lower end of the scale of such firms that there’s likely to be more of an impact from ABS.”

Noel’s work with legal clients includes providing the reports required by the Law Society to demonstrate proper use of client money but he is also regularly called on for his forensic accounting and expert witness skills. Areas in which he works include litigation, commercial disputes and matrimonial cases.

Some involve very substantial sums, including a recent divorce case which involved a £4 million settlement and suspected concealment of assets. He is also experienced in confiscation cases, where the Crown is seeking to seize the assets of a convicted person regarded as the proceeds of crime.  Noel says: “In a recent case, as a result of my report and evidence the sum confiscated was reduced from the £500,000 being sought by the Crown to £115, the value of the computer on which the person involved had looked at internet information about taking assets out of the country and which the Crown interpreted as evidence that he had done so.”

For more information on Rickard Keen’s legal and forensic accounting specialisms, please contact Noel at noel.kelleway@rickardkeen.co.uk or on 01702 347771.