Sorren, a private-equity-backed accounting network formed from 13 local firms, has launched an affiliated law practice in the latest attempt to draw legal services into a broader professional-services platform without crossing rules that reserve law-firm ownership to lawyers.
The firm announced Tuesday that Sorren Law will advise businesses, investors and individuals on transactions, succession planning, asset protection and estates. The practice is a rebranding of Mansfield & Mayo, a small law firm operating in Nevada and Idaho.
The ownership structure is deliberately split. Lawyers own Sorren Law. The accounting business and the lawyers are co-investors in a management-services company that supplies administration, technology and other back-office support. That arrangement is designed to give the law practice access to outside capital and shared infrastructure while keeping professional judgment and ownership of the legal entity in lawyers’ hands.
Management-services organizations have long been common in health care. Their spread into law is testing the boundary between financing a legal business and controlling legal work. Most U.S. jurisdictions still prohibit nonlawyers from owning law firms or sharing legal fees, though Arizona permits alternative business structures under court supervision.
KPMG and Aprio have taken advantage of Arizona’s program to create law-firm affiliates. Sorren’s model does not depend on nonlawyer ownership of the firm itself, making the separation between the practice and its support company central to the ethics analysis.
Sorren Law says it is hiring and plans to enter additional markets. Regulators will be watching conflicts, fee arrangements, client confidentiality and whether business incentives can influence the lawyers’ independent duties.
