It’s shorter, but there are two. Gone are outcomes, indicative behaviours and the rather confusing definition of the word ‘you’ to mean just about anybody, depending on its context. However, there are now two codes, one for individuals and one for firms, again aimed at making it a bit clearer as to where responsibility lies.

For years, insurance companies have used risk management services as a tool to engage with their customers and improve the risk that is being insured. If a customer feels that their insurer is invested in their business and actively wants to help them succeed, they are far more likely to renew their policy, purchase additional products and recommend them to their contacts. Therefore, it shouldn’t be a surprise that legal expenses insurers, to varying degrees, look to help their customers in managing legal exposures and the costs from employment claims.

The Council for Licensed Conveyancers has long argued that the scope of regulation of legal services is a muddled patchwork. The system of ‘reservation’ of legal services has grown up over time on no systematic basis and needs to be reviewed to ensure it is genuinely protecting consumers and supporting innovation and growth.

Given the massive global push to take computing off premises, a move to the cloud in the legal sector is inevitable – in fact, it is already happening. Analysts today are more or less unanimous in predicting that cloud computing will provide the technology foundation for businesses in the near future. According to Forester, we are on the verge of the second wave (application-focused) of cloud computing and we will increasingly find cloud providers focusing on the provision of next-generation applications in the cloud. The legal sector must partake of this opportunity.

Although many legal businesses claim to have introduced enlightened client-based practices, the existence of widespread poor satisfaction levels is arguably the sector’s Achilles heel, acting as a drag on performance in an era of fierce competition. It is also the reason that everyone from consumer representatives to regulators of the profession can continue to chide the sector for harbouring outdated attitudes and being demonstrably out of tune with modern shoppers for goods and services.