Latest news

The Bar Standards Board has approved 15 new businesses as it enters the world of entity regulation – but they remain unnamed as they have first to confirm that they have professional indemnity insurance in place.

Smaller law firms continue to see merger, rather than external investment or bringing in non-lawyer owners, as the more likely path to growth, Law Society research has found. It also found that the majority of practices polled are now recording net profits ahead of where they were before the recession.

The Advertising Standards Authority has rejected a complaint against a west country personal injury law firm, saying that consumers now have “a general awareness that to have a valid claim there would have to be some degree of fault or negligence by a third party”.

The Legal Services Consumer Panel has strongly attacked plans by the Council for Licensed Conveyancers to cut the size of grants from its compensation fund from £1m to £500,000 – a quarter of the amount clients of solicitors can claim.

Leading legal academics are developing a blueprint for ethical in-house practice, amid growing evidence that general counsel are under increasing pressure to compromise their professional ethics.

Jenner & Block has not become the first US law firm licensed as an alternative business structure, it has emerged – rather it was an error by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Plus, call for QC to be open for all, and new members of LeO’s board.

A criminal law firm has teamed up with a technology company to launch what it said is the first app to digitise the work of criminal lawyers, even when they are working offline in prisons or police stations.

A new local authority alternative business structure is targeting the health sector as one of its main growth areas. Its head said that with “no traditional partnership structure or expensive offices, our fees are very, very competitive compared with specialist private sector law firms”.

Institutional investors have snapped up new shares in Slater & Gordon to fund its purchase of Quindell’s professional services division, it announced overnight. Around 70% of the £637m initial purchase price – £456m – is being funded through new shares, with the rest through bank debt.

Insurance law firm BLM has joined forces with Cunningham Lindsey, one of the largest loss adjusting and claims management companies in the world, to launch an offering that combines loss adjusting, claims handling and litigation.