Latest news
NewLaw vendors receive final £5m pay-out for sale to Redde plc
The owners of NewLaw Solicitors have received an issue of shares worth £5.16m as final consideration for its acquisition by Redde plc. Law firm-owning Fairpoint Group and Slater & Gordon have also issued stock market announcments.
Number of QCs continues to fall
The number of QCs is continuing to fall, statistics from the Bar Standard Board have shown, dropping by more than 200 in four years. This contrasts with the steady rise in the total number of practicing barristers.
Big firms will “push non-reserved work into unregulated businesses”
Major law firms will soon “eschew the solicitor brand” in favour of conducting non-reserved legal business in the unregulated sector, the compliance officer at a top City firm has predicted.
Coroner turned crook is referred to SDT
William John Owen, a former coroner for Carmarthenshire, has been referred to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal. Mr Owen, 79, was jailed for theft in November last year for five years.
Regulate lawyers by “competence not title”, chair of CILEx Regulation says
Alan Kershaw, chair of CILEx Regulation, has said lawyers should be regulated “by competence, not by title” and urged the different branches of the profession not to give up on common training.
Mayson: updated Legal Services Act needed to “finish the job”
A successor to the Legal Services Act 2007 is urgently required to build on the Act’s successes and to iron out the problems that have emerged since, according to a leading market commentator.
SRA to focus on individual regulation and professionalism, Philip says
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) will focus more on individual regulation and less on firms in the year ahead, chief executive Paul Philip has said.
Welsh government launches review of legal sector
The former head of client relations at Eversheds has been commissioned by the Welsh government to review the legal sector in the principality. Solicitor Kevin Doolan has been tasked with identifying opportunities to increase investment and employment
Solicitor who is not an advocate sets up one of first BSB entities
A firm set up by Mark Johnson, a solicitor and former partner at Geldards, is among the first dozen entities to be named today as regulated by the Bar Standards Board. He did it because of access to Bar Mutual indemnity insurance and the Bar’s “simpler and more transparent” rules.
Second time lucky for top accountants after “hell” of dealing with SRA over ABS bid
Sir Michael Snyder, senior partner of top 20 accountants Kingston Smith, has welcomed a change of approach to multi-disciplinary practices at the Solicitors Regulation Authority after describing the “sheer hell” of the firm’s first attempt to become an alternative business structure.
Blog
Mazur: a symptom not a cause?
If Mazur is a symptom, what does it mean for the underlying health of our civil justice system: the ‘finest legal system in the world’?
Cross-generation collaboration: the key to in-house legal tech adoption
In-house legal function leaders will increasingly have to evolve their thinking on how to manage multigenerational teams containing differing levels of technological expertise.
AI and law firm risk – the view of professional indemnity insurers
In considering law firm applications for cover, many insurers will expect to see evidence of how firms are adapting to AI and preparing for the future.
