A NEW law business is creating 70 jobs.

Maidstone-based asb law has set up a separate operation to specialise in high-volume work such as residential conveyancing, re-mortgaging, personal injury and uninsured loss recovery.

It will be known as asb aspire. Much of its work for individuals will come via estate agents, intermediaries, claims management companies, insurers and brokers.

The move is a response to the 2004 Clementi review of legal services and the Government’s Legal Services Bill expected to come into force in three years’ time.

Andrew Clinton, asb law’s managing partner, said: "The legal landscape is about to change and firms are facing new challenges and opportunities. The Bill will give existing firms greater freedom to innovate but it will also allow new providers to enter the market."

The new enterprise opens for business on June 1 with 38 staff, some of them from the existing operation at Eclipse Business Park, Maidstone.

It follows a merger with the Andrew Gardner Partnership, also based in Maidstone, a law firm specialising in personal injury and uninsured loss recovery claims. Mr Gardner is joining asb law’s property services group.

Bosses say that asb aspire has ambitious plans to grow the business and expect to increase the workforce to 70 by the end of the year.

Managing director Sally Dunscombe said the move was a natural one for asb law. Volume services needed legal supervision but were mainly administrative.

"If you have highly trained individuals managed by senior lawyers and the correct systems in place which define specific actions, much of the work doesn’t need to be handled by qualified lawyers," she said.

However, an exception was brain injury claims. "This is a very specialist area of law and will be handled exclusively by senior lawyers with individually devised case plans for each client."

She insited the new business would not be a "factory" operation, and she planned to add debt recovery, wills and probate to the range of services offered by asb aspire.

asb law is a top-100 law firm, offering coverage throughout Kent, Sussex, Surrey and south London from offices in Maidstone, Crawley, Brighton, Horsham and Croydon. It has 37 partners and almost 300 legal and support staff.