Latest news
Grayling tells LSB to work towards its own abolition
The Lord Chancellor has set the Legal Services Board the task of working towards its own abolition as part of a push to reduce the burden of regulation on the legal profession, he revealed yesterday.
Partners in the spotlight as a fifth of firms report “competence failures”
Almost a fifth of firms have reported “failures in competent legal service delivery” in the last 12 months, a major study for the Solicitors Regulation Authority has found.
ASA orders leading PI firm to stop adverts due to NHS ‘confusion’
A well-known personal injury firm has been ordered to stop running a TV advert which directed clients to its NHSLaw.co.uk website, on the grounds that the public might confuse it with the National Health Service.
Not-for-profit’s groundbreaking ABS eyes expansion
In the third part of our series in which we catch up on the progress of the new breed of alternative business structures (ABSs), we speak to Castle Park Solicitors, which was the first ABS to be created by a legal advice charity.
New law to target “corrupt lawyers” who help criminals
“Corrupt lawyers” who help who organised crime gangs and hide behind a “veneer of respectability” will be targeted by a new offence, the Home Office announced yesterday.
Firms should consider setting ethnic minority diversity targets, says SRA
Law firms should consider setting diversity targets for BME lawyers and staff, just as some have done with women, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has said.
Medium-sized firms lead way on fee income, profits and PEP
Law firms with 11 to 25 partners are leading the way out of recession, with rising fee incomes, net profits and a 21% surge in profit per equity partner (PEP), research has found.
Solicitors more diverse than society, profession-wide survey shows
Solicitors in law firms are slightly more diverse than the rest of society, the results of the profession-wide diversity monitoring undertaken by the Solicitors Regulation Authority have shown.
‘Direct access chambers’ opens for business and lands group action
A set of chambers specialising in direct access cases and working only on a fixed fee basis has opened in Cheltenham. Cotswold Barristers also claims to have landed the biggest direct access case so far.
Laws on legal professional privilege “need to catch up with digital age”
National laws on protecting privileged legal communications are outdated and need to be brought into the digital age, according to the body representing Europe’s lawyers in a major new report.
Blog
Why housing disrepair claims against councils have leapt by nearly 400%
Housing disrepair claims against councils have surged dramatically in recent years, with some areas reporting increases approaching a staggering 400%.
Client accounts: Opportunity, obligation and the risks in between
The profitability gap between well-run firms and the rest is not primarily a function of size, location or practice area – it is a function of financial management.
Motor finance – the FCA is more worried about banks than consumers
The Financial Conduct Authority’s motor finance redress scheme announced last week amounts to one of the largest ever consumer failures by the regulator.
