Crispin Passmore, director of policy at the Solicitors Regulation Authority, writes: We are now nearing the end of a five-year programme to change how the SRA regulates so we can make sure we focus on what matters: high professional standards. Our reforms should help encourage new ways of working, but we also want to help lawyers and business work with us to implement innovations that might be difficult under existing regulations but are still in the public interest. Sometimes advice and guidance are enough, but through SRA Innovate we are also using waivers to existing rules to allow something new to happen safely.

There is no shortage of thought leadership on the topic of legal artificial intelligence (AI), whether in terms of defining the market segment, (re)educating audiences on what is possible with rapidly evolving technologies, and even the occasional ‘me-too’ displays of enthusiasm over new technologies and start-ups. We also find true thought leadership from legal tech visionaries, who describe the future of the legal industry and outline how legal roles are changing. What is clear is that tech companies are figuring out how to automate many day-to-day tasks using machine learning and AI.

There are a lot of changes happening in the personal injury sector right now, with many people wondering what the landscape will look like a year down the road. The relationship between law firms and claims management companies has never been without its challenges, and the Civil Liability Bill might make this even more complex. But how much is scaremongering, and what should solicitors be on the look out for?

“Our solicitors put lots of content on our website, but we don’t get much business from it”, the managing partner of a law firm said to me recently. Indeed, there was plenty of legal text on the website but there were several reasons why it was not yielding results. Of course, all lawyers can write, so it might seem logical to think that they can write content for a website. The question that you need to ask is, how well can they write? In particular, how well can they write for the internet?

If you are going to balance the demands of work and childcare, and stay sane, you need to adapt, and with any luck your firm will adapt with you. In doing so you will both win, and your respective productivity will soar. When I had my son, I realised just how lucky I was. Not only did I have the incredible support of my, and my husband’s, family through this life-changing time, but I had a firm that offered me complete flexibility and control over my return to business life.