The face of BT Law, having last year secured a licence from the Solicitors Regulation Authority to hive off BT’s successful motor claims business into an alternative business structure (ABS), Miles Jobling has now handed over his lead role to Sheffield-based co-founder Archana Makol.
Makol has become the Compliance Officer of the Legal Practice (COLP) for BT Law, as most of the division’s contracts are processed out of Sheffield and a spokesperson for the telecoms giant explained: ‘The COLP role is very important and needs the person to be very close to the day-to-day operation.’
Jobling, who will remain as a director of BT Law and continue to be involved in the business, will now re-focus his efforts on his role as head of BT Group’s 155-strong global litigation, employment and corporate investigations team.
It has long been BT’s intention to divert some of its litigators to BT Law as it grows and develops and Jobling will now manage that process.
The spokesperson added: ‘Miles remains very much committed to its success. Miles and his team are driving the business forward and the clients are starting to grow. They are looking to other new products that they can offer.’
BT Law incorporates BT Claims, an already well-established name in the motor claims management industry, which handles more than 35,000 corporate fleet vehicles.
As a result of having secured ABS status and being able to offer otherwise restricted legal services such as litigation, BT Law can offer an in-house end-to-end motor claims service for businesses from incident notification, through investigation and resolution and now including full litigation management.
Since its launch last March BT has won three third-party contracts for companies with large fleets, including Network Rail, and is looking at strengthening its portfolio to personal injury and employment work.
This latest development comes after Legal Business this week (6 February) revealed that BT has agreed a new three-year arrangement with Axiom to provide global assistance with contractual work out of its London, Belfast, Houston, and India sites. Axiom, which takes over a legal process outsourcing contract from UnitedLex, is taking on a bigger chunk of BT’s contractual needs and is also providing sophisticated analytics with the aim of improving its processes and reducing repetition.
sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk
