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A government bid to slash unnecessary red tape around the regulation of legal services goes live today. As first revealed by Legal Futures in February, the Red Tape Challenge – a government-wide initiative to cut the 21,000 regulations currently in force in the UK – is spotlighting legal services.

The rapid expansion of Riverview Law continued today with the announcement that it has opened its first international office in New York in a bid to give overseas businesses and law firms direct access to English barristers.

The Law Society has called on the Legal Services Board to reject changes to the cab-rank rule in the latest stage of the long-running saga over standard contractual terms between barristers and solicitors. The society said they would have an “anti-competitive effect.

Satellite litigation may be necessary to work out the new rule on proportionality in costs, the Master of the Rolls has said, but it will be a “very small price to pay”. Lawyers were also warned that if they fail to submit a budget from next April, then it will by default comprise only court fees.

Claimant personal injury lawyers have launched a strong attack on the government’s bid to expand the RTA claims process while also cutting legal fees for work done under it. Research showed the current £1,200 is about right, with profit margins set to fall.

The first will-writer to be granted an alternative business structure (ABS) licence says she hopes others will follow suit so as to “level the playing field” with solicitors. Parchment Law Group became the seventh ABS last Friday.

Our latest round-up of key news snippets sees the ex-chief of the CLC launch a consultancy, a new COLP and COFA helpline, a campaign against personal injury “auctions”, Lawyers on Demand goes it alone, a run-off cover boost for retiring solicitors, and a rethink on financial services ABSs.

Law firms, chambers, regulators and other legal bodies which sign up to the official British Standard on dealing with vulnerable consumers are to have their commitment celebrated publicly on the website of the Legal Services Consumer Panel.

Eighteen solicitors were sanctioned by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal last year for breaches of anti-money laundering obligations, the Law Society has reported. It has also identified alternative business structures as among the increased risks of money laundering facing the profession.

There are signs that lawyers are getting better at handling complaints but also still failing to signpost their clients to the Legal Ombudsman, the chief ombudsman has said. Both could help explain why complaint volumes are lower than had been planned for.