Online divorce service applies for regulation as a law firm

A separation service founded on the idea that most couples do not need two sets of lawyers is becoming a law firm in its own right.

Amicable, launched in 2015 as an unregulated advice and support business, has applied to the Solicitors Regulation Authority for authorisation to carry out reserved legal activities. The company says its couple-focused model has worked at scale — it claims to have drafted more consent orders than any single solicitor firm — but accepts the approach does not fit every separation.

Alex Woolley, head of legal innovation, said the joint approach is not a cure-all. Where one partner wants to engage and the other does not, the existing service cannot act for the willing party. The new firm is designed to close that gap, serving people who cannot safely use a shared process, or simply do not want to, while keeping what the company describes as a non-inflammatory, pragmatic and fair approach.

What the regulated firm will offer

Alongside family work, the firm will handle conveyancing for clients transferring property after a separation or divorce — an obvious adjacency for a business already advising on financial settlements. Family and property solicitors are being recruited now, ahead of authorisation.

The operational angle is the one other firms will watch. Amicable has spent a decade building software around separation, and says the new firm will design its own case management, client communication and drafting tools around the client rather than adopting an off-the-shelf stack. Artificial intelligence will assist with drafting, triage and research, with a qualified solicitor reviewing every piece of advice and every document before it reaches a client or a court.

That review model matters. Consumer-facing legal businesses moving into regulated work are being judged on supervision as much as on technology, and a stated human sign-off on all outbound advice is the control most regulators and insurers will look for first.

From personal experience to regulated practice

Amicable was co-founded by Kate Daly and Pip Wilson after Daly went through a long and costly divorce, with the explicit aim of offering an alternative to the traditional two-lawyer process. Wilson, chief executive, said the business began from a belief that there had to be a kinder route through divorce, and that working with couples jointly is not possible in every case. Until now, she said, those clients could not be helped in-house. The new firm is intended for them, built on the same values and the same technology.