Latest news
LeO cuts £3m off budget as income from case fees collapses
The Legal Ombudsman is to reduce its budget by 14% – amounting to nearly £3m – over the next year, it has revealed. It is in large part accounted for by a far lower receipt of case fees last year than had been expected.
Edmonds: failure to comply with staff diversity rules will tell its own story
Lack of compliance by law firms and chambers with the new requirements to publish information about the diversity of their staff “will in itself tell a story”, the chairman of the Legal Services Board has claimed.
Don’t recruit partners without running them past us first, SRA warns firms
Law firms recruiting partners must now seek the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s approval prior to appointment, it has confirmed. However, it is still unable to confirm when the process will begin for firms to nominate their COLP and COFA.
Rocket Lawyer ramps up ahead of UK launch
Rocket Lawyer, the Google-backed US online legal document service, has taken the next step in its plans to launch in the UK this year by opening a London office and recruiting a senior member of the LexisNexis team to lead it.
Moorhead takes on ethics role as legal profession comes to terms with "paradigm-busting shifts"
University College London has appointed well-known academic Professor Richard Moorhead to its first chair in law and professional ethics. He said the changes hitting the legal professions are challenging “their ethics and their identities”.
Exclusive: SRA bids to increase its power to fine law firms – from £2,000 to £250m
The Solicitors Regulation Authority’s is planning to increase its power to fine law firms from £2,000 to £250m, and to £50m for individuals, Legal Futures can reveal. The Law Society has described the move as “misconceived”.
"Significant" number of chambers to avoid diversity data publication – but what about law firms?
Chambers with fewer than 10 staff and/or members should not have to publish the results of the diversity survey that they all have to complete this year, their regulator is to tell the Legal Services Board.
In-house lawyers face ABS dilemma
Organisations whose in-house solicitors provide reserved legal activities to people other than their employer – such as insurers, associations and local authorities – will have to decide for themselves whether by law they need to become alternative business structures, according to the SRA.
Co-op to roll out face-to-face legal advice in bank branches
The Co-op – which yesterday received its alternative business structure licence – is to provide legal services through its banking network as it seeks to challenge the “legal postcode lottery”, it has announced.
MPs "worried" about confusion over regulation and quality of legal services
The vast majority of MPs are concerned that their constituents may not understand what legal services are regulated and which are not, new research has found. It also identified concern that there is insufficient redress for consumers of legal services.
Blog
A familiar story?
There is no doubt that the rising cost of clinical negligence claims deserves attention. However, the system’s true cost driver is often not the claim itself.
When AI becomes a line on the client’s bill
On 23 June, Legora changed how it charges. The platform announced that its most capable product was moving away from a flat per-seat licence fee to consumption-based pricing
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.
