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Barristers could end up uninsured and in financial hardship if they agree to variations of their new standard terms of contract recommended by the Law Society, the Bar Council has warned. It said it was “surprised and disappointed” at the tone of Chancery Lane’s practice note.

Transactional lawyers should be held accountable if their advice is used by clients for unlawful acts and strict conduct rules are necessary to police this rather than an outcomes-focused principle, law academics have argued.

Mid-sized law firms are looking more likely to secure mergers in the coming months than their smaller brethren, new research has indicated. The survey of 92 firms found that most of the firms that had received or made multiple approaches had at least 10 partners.

The Bar Standards Board’s plans to strengthen public access training for newly qualified barristers in client care are inadequate and should include extensive supervision to ensure competence as is required of trainee solicitors, according to the Law Society.

Evident Legal, the law firm franchise turned online legal service Simplify the Law, has secured a cash injection from a venture capitalist to help it grow. The investor, ARC InterCapital, was set up by former Goldman Sachs vice-president Andrew Dixon.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority is again lobbying the government to raise the amount it can fine traditional law firms after its previous attempt to catapult the limit from £2,000 to £250m was rejected last autumn. The revelation came in a consultation on proposed fining guidelines.

A law firm that has innovative web-based personal injury brands, including those directed at the building trades and taxi drivers, is to investigate external investment after winning its alternative business structure (ABS) license.

Admiral Insurance and national law firm Lyons Davidson – which received its alternative business structure licence in November – are having talks about linking up, but it will not involve the law firm being acquired, Legal Futures can report.

The Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates is illogical in its treatment of QCs and does not serve the public interest by allowing solicitors to act as plea-only advocates, the chairman of the Bar Council has argued. The claims come as the bodies representing criminal law solicitors and barristers united in calling for a halt to the scheme.

Legal regulators have failed to open up their professional registers containing disciplinary information to price comparison websites, despite having been instructed to do so by the Legal Services Board, the Legal Services Consumer Panel has complained.