Latest news
Lord Chancellor should be “very senior lawyer”
The Lord Chancellor should be a “very senior lawyer”, Nicholas Lavender QC, chairman of the Bar Council, has said. Support for the role being held by a lawyer also came from the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives.
LeO calls for voluntary wills and probate ombudsman scheme
The chief legal ombudsman, Adam Sampson, has called on the government to extend its jursidction to unregulated will-writing and probate providers – while also highlighting continued shortcomings among regulated providers.
CLS switches volume conveyancing partner
Co-operative Legal Services (CLS) has announced that it is switching its volume conveyancing partner, from Blacks in Leeds to TCS in Cheshire. It said working with TCS “will allow us to broaden our offering for customers and members, and will increase the capacity of our service”.
“No disadvantages” in being a non-lawyer Lord Chancellor, Grayling says
Chris Grayling, the Lord Chancellor, said this morning he could see “no disadvantages” in the post being occupied by a non-lawyer.
Deech calls for full independence for legal regulators
The legal regulators should have full independence, and ‘approved regulator’ role of the Bar Council, Law Society and other professional bodies should be abolished, the chair of the Bar Standards Board argued yesterday.
2,700 firms sign up for Lender Exchange
More than 2,700 law firms have signed up for Lender Exchange, a website which stores information about conveyancing panel firms for mortgage lenders. However, negotiations with the Law Society over a relationship with the Conveyancing Quality Scheme have stalled.
Leading law firms failing to move with the times online, website study finds
The websites of leading law firms are failing to take advantage of consumers’ changing habits, a new study has claimed. The ‘white video’ issued by digital marketing agency mmadigital reported that 56% of the top 200 law firms do not have a mobile responsive website.
BSB probes contracts between chambers and solicitors
The Bar Standards Board (BSB) is investigating the extent to which barristers have been accepting work from solicitors without entering into contracts, or accepting terms “contrary to their regulatory obligations”.
Headache for 1,000 firms with SRA poised to pull out of consumer credit work
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has said it may have to stop regulating consumer credit work, such as debt collection, from next April. The regulator said it was aware that around 1,100 firms were involved in debt collection.
Law Society invests £5m+ in online conveyancing project
The Law Society has invested over £5m in a new online conveyancing system, to be launched next spring, which aims to revolutionise the home-buying process.
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.
