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Whichever way a decision goes on the future of separate representation for property buyers and lenders in Scotland next month, it is likely to prove unpopular with a large number of solicitors, a survey has revealed.

The Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) is to investigate its members’ handling of complaints and their performance in managing conflicts of interest when acting for buyer and seller in property transactions.

A marketing group that is set to link wedding planning, cosmetic dentistry and ultimately a pizza chain, is aiming to create the largest legal brand in the UK with an annual advertising spend of £6m by early next year.

Key figures in the professional indemnity insurance (PII) industry have reassured sole practitioners and small practices that a wide choice of reliable cover is still available to them, after XL Insurance confirmed it would no longer insure 1-3 partner firms.

It’s the hottest summer since the end of the Ice Age and the cold dark misery of winter seems a long way off. Try, if you can, to cast you mind forward to January 2014. A depressing month at any time, we can rely on the SRA to make January just that little bit less endurable – last January it was the COLP and COFA regime, next year it’s diversity monitoring.

The first corporate law firm in the world to go public is eyeing up opportunities in the UK, Legal Futures understands. Integrated Legal Holdings has until now been an aggregator of boutique corporate, tax and private client firms across Australia.

A specialist industrial disease law firm in the north-west is looking to convert to an alternative business structure to take advantage of a period of extraordinary growth. Fee income doubled to £7m and staff numbers quadrupled to 170 over the last year.

A Birmingham solicitor has become only the fourth lawyer to be found in contempt of court as a result of legal action taken by the Legal Ombudsman. He was also hit with a fine of £5,000 plus costs, after holding on to important files and failing to update his clients.

An online legal directory aiming to aggregate the publicly available data about lawyers – including complaints information from the Legal Ombudsman – has launched with the outline details of nearly 13,000 lawyers.

Too many partners are unaware of their firm’s financial situation and the personal implications of the business going under, it has been claimed. Firms are in serious danger of going out of business because they do not have sufficient cash to meet their running costs.