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Law firms are overwhelmingly failing to follow up referrals for basic legal work from comparison websites, in what is described today as a “massive own goal by the profession”. In a mystery shopping exercise, eight out of ten online referral requests for a simple will were ignored.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has so far received more alternative business structure applications than it expected, chief executive Antony Townsend admitted yesterday. He also suggested that there will in time be growing momentum towards consolidating the eight current legal regulators into one.

Duke Street has become the first private equity company to buy a legal practice after acquiring “a significant stake” in the Parabis Group, whose law firm Cogent Law sits behind both the AA and Saga’s legal services websites. It plans to turn Parabis into a business process outsourcer.

The government last week rejected a Bar Council-inspired bid to protect lawyer-client conversations from covert police surveillance where legal professional privilege is not being abused in furtherance of a criminal purpose. However, the Bar Council has vowed to press on with its campaign.

Niche City litigation firm Bivonas has failed to overturn a ruling that it discriminated against an employed barrister on the basis of his sexual orientation. However, the College of Law and SRA have defeated a disability discrimination claim brought by an LPC student.

Lawyers were this week told not to be discouraged from embracing social media after a barrister who was among the legal pioneers on Twitter was fined for messages he posted on the service. However, the case does raise questions over the role of regulators in policing lawyers’ activity on Twitter.

Slater & Gordon’s takeover of Russell Jones & Walker is evidence that law firms are “joining the real business world” and that there is realisable value in legal practices, leading consultants have said.

The government is to consider tightening up the ban on referral fees in personal injury and also introducing statutory regulation of third-party litigation funding, it confirmed yesterday. It also clarified whether payments can be made for solicitor-to-solicitor referrals under the ban.

A new service has been launched that allows solicitors to contact numerous sets of barristers chambers simultaneously to check what counsel are available for a case they are looking to cover. Meanwhile, another online service aimed at helping consumers find tradesmen is now targeting the legal market.

A former fixed-share partner at south-coast law firm Lester Aldridge has lost his appeal against a ruling that he was a partner and not an employee in the limited liability partnership and so unable to claim unfair dismissal.