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The first effort to build a nationwide network of branded high street solicitors begins today with the opening of 15 branches under the QualitySolicitors name. Firms in the QualitySolicitors’s existing 200-strong network – such as Burroughs Day in Bristol and Howlett Clarke in Brighton – will launch their new branding over the next week with the help of various celebrities

Though websites have a number of uses – marketing, PR, client services etc – that often demand regular redevelopment, the pace of change in the legal sector has slowed. Intendance’s Fast Fifty 2010 Update can reveal that only eight law firm websites that featured in last year’s Fast Fifty report have changed.

A majority of barristers think they should be able to conduct litigation whether they are working inside “entities”, such as law firms, or whether they are self-employed, according to emerging findings from the Bar Standards Board’s survey of the profession. There was also a majority in favour of extending public access.

The Guardian has a new law section of its website, on which Legal Futures has a weekly column, while we also had an article on professional indemnity in last week’s Times law section.

Referral fees in personal injury and conveyancing do not harm consumers and so there is no case to ban them or take any other regulatory action, a major piece of research released today has concluded. In fact, it found that referral fees actually result in cheaper conveyancing fees and improved access to justice for injured people.

A rising tide of claims against solicitors and a huge increase in the number of firms falling into the assigned risks pool means law firms should prepare for a 10% jump in professional indemnity premiums this year, broker Lockton has warned.

The legal process outsourcing (LPO) market is set to triple in size over the next five years, driven almost exclusively by US and UK lawyers, it has been predicted. Research and analytics firm Evalueserve said the need to become more efficient because of the Legal Services Act and specifically alternative business structures “is expected to boost the LPO industry” in the UK.

The ministerial line-up at the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has been completed with the appointment of a solicitor and non-lawyer as parliamentary under-secretaries. Jonathan Djanogly, until last year a partner of City law firm SJ Berwin, has been joined by one-time soldier Crispin Blunt as the MoJ’s junior ministers.

Legal process outsourcing reached a new level today after City firm CMS Cameron McKenna signed a 10-year, £583 million deal with Integreon for its “middle office” services, which it claims is the largest ever deal in the legal market and has received the endorsement of Professor Richard Susskind.

The Financial Services and Markets Tribunal has upheld a Financial Services Authority (FSA) decision permanently banning a solicitor from working in any capacity in financial services and fining him and the FSA-regulated law firm of which he is senior partner, £400,000.