ABSs at risk of criminal ownership The Law Society is pressing the Ministry of Justice to make an urgent amendment to the Legal Services Act to prevent non-lawyers with spent criminal convictions from becoming owners of alternative business structures. Provisions allowing for external ownership of law firms come into force in October. 19 July 2001 Callery ruling boosts claimant solicitors Personal injury solicitors can sign up clients to conditional fee agreements at the outset and charge a 20% success fee in simple cases such as a ‘modest and straightforward road accident-style claim’, the Court of Appeal has ruled in the Callery v Gray test case.