Simon Young

Simon Young is one of the country’s leading consultants in relation to the financing and re-structuring of law firms. This work has, since 2001, focused on the transformation of partnerships to limited liability status, either as limited companies or, more usually, as LLPs. Working closely with senior partners and management on these projects has involved advising on all aspects of law firm management, such as capital / loan financing; profit distribution and performance standards / remuneration; governance structures; and funding outgoing partners.

Simon worked for 27 years for West Country firm Veitch Penny, mostly as a commercial lawyer and for over ten years as Managing Partner. He helped that firm become only the eleventh organisation in the country to get “Lexcel”, and also to get Investors in People status. He later developed that interest by becoming a trainer of Lexcel consultants, and co-author of the Law Society’s standard Office Manual (3rd edn).

In the late 1990s he took the MBA in Legal Services Management at Nottingham Law School, and in 2002 he left mainstream practice. He is now a sole practitioner, and also proprietor of Lawyers Compliance Limited, advising on regulatory and compliance issues (www.lawcompliance.co.uk). That latter aspect of his involvement was reflected in the publication in 2005 of Butterworth’s “Money Laundering Reporting Officer’s Handbook” of which he was the chief author.

He became a member of the Law Management Section’s Executive, and was in 2001 appointed to represent that section on the Council of the Law Society. His involvement within the Society has centred around regulatory aspects, and he presently chairs the Rules and Ethics group, within the representative side of the Society, which is responsible for co-ordinating the profession’s responses to the myriad rule changes consequent upon the passing of the Legal Services Act. Together with Heather Stewart, he conducted the Law Society’s roadshows on the Solicitors Code of Conduct 2007, and has widely presented seminars on all sorts of regulatory and management issues.

Between 2001 and 2003 he wrote the Limited Liability Partnerships Handbook, and the two volumes on Partnership which form part of the “Encyclopaedia of Forms and Precedents”. The second edition of the former was published in 2007, and he is currently re-writing the latter.

At present, his main focus is working closely with firms to help them manage the challenge of the opening up of the legal profession under the Legal Services Act. This can relate to the modernisation of their structures and financial positions; the protection of the firms against compliance problems, through compliance audits and advice on the regulatory acceptability of new models for the legal services businesses; and informing / training firms as to their new professional obligations.