The ticking bomb of referral fees
There is an interesting game of pass the parcel going on over referral fees right now – made more interesting by the fact that the parcel is ticking loudly. The Ministry of Justice wants paying referral fees to be a regulatory offence, while the regulators want it to be a criminal offence – nobody wants the blame when the ban proves impossible to enforce.
Don’t comply, don’t die
Amid the excitement of ABSs going live, in a small way, and the Legal Ombudsman’s first birthday, I have been keeping an eye on the third limb of the Legal Services Board’s initial three priorities for its first three years – ensuring the independence of regulation within those approved regulators where there is also a representative function. With both the Law Society and Bar Council still non-compliant with its rules, it is not a story that reflects very well on the LSB.
Lawyers and accountants – happy marriage or divorce in the making?
Among the many things that the Legal Services Act has done is revive the idea of multi-disciplinary practices (MDPs), thought dead after the Enron scandal a decade ago and compounded in the US by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. It is often forgotten that there was no MDP actually involved in Enron.
Lessons from a Glasgow charity shop
“Charity shops beware?” asked Viv Williams in his blog last week, wondering if legal brands might replace charity shops as the ubiquitous face of the high street. With QualitySolicitors, Lawyers2you, face2face solicitors and the rest all vying to build the solicitor brand, it is not beyond the bounds of possibility. Well, the charity shops are already hitting back. Kind of. Last week innovative Scottish solicitor Brian Inkster set up what he calls a “pop-up wills kiosk” in a Barnardo’s shop in the city, during Remember a Charity week. The results were impressive.
Charity shops beware?
The growth in access points for “legal services” is gaining unprecedented momentum. So what does this mean for the future? Could it spell the end of the road for some of the charity shops that have come to dominate many of our struggling high streets and shopping precincts? Will we see new entrants to the market, all offering legal services, taking over the leases for these premises?
