Wilsons advises top 20 accountants Kingston Smith on legal services licence

Leading law firm Wilsons has advised Kingston Smith, the top 20 UK audit and accountancy firm, on its successful application to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) for an Alternative Business Structure (ABS) licence to provide legal services.

Wilsons says that Kingston Smith is only the fourth accountancy firm in the UK to be granted a licence by the SRA to act as a Multi-Disciplinary Practice (MDP), and the first outside the so-called ‘big four’ accountancy firms.

The team at Wilsons was led by partner James Johnson.

Wilsons says that the granting of the ABS licence is the culmination of several months of work by Kingston Smith, Wilsons and the SRA.

James Johnson comments: “We are delighted to have assisted Kingston Smith in this very significant achievement for the firm.”

“Being granted an ABS licence by the SRA will allow Kingston Smith to add certain legal services as extensions of the services they already provide to their clients for which there is clearly a demand.”

“This has been a challenging process and we have spent a considerable amount of time working collaboratively with the SRA to make it fit within the necessary rules. The success of the application should mark a watershed moment for provision of legal services by accountancy firms and the MDP model is now truly with us.”