Latest news
Direct Line hits £125m from solicitors since 2009 after scooping final £6m in referral fees
Direct Line Group – which last month announced plans to launch its own legal business – made a final £6.1m in referral fees from solicitors this year before the ban was introduced on 1 April, its half-year results have shown.
Internet marketers launch map-based direct access service
An internet marketing specialist has launched a new map directory for public access barristers. Nick Draycott, director of GoDirect2Barristers.com, has adapted online mapping technology to produce a site which he argues offers improved direct access to the Bar.
Earnings up sharply at leading conveyancing ABS
Countrywide plc has reported a “promising first half trading performance” for its conveyancing division, with income up 4% and earnings 12%. Countrywide Property Lawyers is an alternative business structure regulated by the Council for Licensed Conveyancers.
SRA “loosening shackles” of separate business rule
There are signs of the Solicitors Regulation Authority relaxing its strict interpretation of a key rule which may be “dampening” innovation and new entrants to the market, according to the Legal Services Board.
Call for ‘intervention lite’ to turn around distressed firms and halt asset-stripping
The Solicitors Regulation Authority needs to establish a new expert panel that would be called in to help avoid formal intervention into failing law firms – dubbed ‘intervention lite’ – a specialist solicitor has claimed.
Legal Services Board mulls formal probe into SRA’s handling of ABS applications
The Legal Services Board is weighing up whether to launch a formal investigation into the way the Solicitors Regulation Authority is handling alternative business structure applications, Legal Futures can reveal.
Interventions fall but number of solicitors struck off rises by more than half
There has been a 25% fall in the number of law firms closed down by the Solicitors Regulation Authority in the past year, new figures have revealed. But despite the number of solicitors before the tribunal also falling, there was a 55% increase in the number of strike-offs.
IT-driven and partners who manage full-time: is new ABS the model PI firm of the future?
Liverpool-based SGI Legal has set its sights on reshaping the way personal injury law firms operate having received its alternative business structure licence from the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
LSB: concern over behaviour at top of Bar Council and BSB sparked independence probe
The Legal Services Board’s initial probe into the independent regulation of barristers uncovered “a number of concerns about the Bar Council’s and the Bar Standards Board’s behaviour at both junior and senior executive as well as board level”, it has emerged.
Lawyers urged to adapt when advising clients with learning disabilities
Lawyers needs to improve their interpersonal skills, be patient, respectful and remove jargon to provide disabled clients with a better legal service, research has claimed. More also needs to be done to advertise legal services to people with learning disabilities.
Blog
Which legal AI will still matter in 12 months?
Four years ago, when senior partners asked me which legal AI they should buy, I would have walked them through a vendor comparison. Now I tell them the question is wrong.
Supreme Court redraws line between member and employee in LLPs
For anyone advising professional services firms on LLP structuring, and of course for those in LLPs themselves, last week’s Supreme Court ruling is an essential read.
Charting a new course for publicly funded legal services
The current Legal Aid Agency model is inherently flawed and it goes beyond mere data breaches – it cannot innovatively respond to increasing challenges.
