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The board of the Solicitors Regulation Authority today pushed ahead with reforms to the assigned risks pool (ARP) despite the threat of a legal challenge from the Black Solicitors Network. March’s “in principle” decision to close the ARP to new firms and halve the length of time firms can spend in it to a year was confirmed after the board considered a full equality impact assessment which concluded that both proposals had a potential adverse impact on race equality.

Nearly two-thirds of law firms saw their professional indemnity insurance (PII) premiums go up last year, Law Society research has found. The survey of 240 law firms also found evidence of “a growing divide in the PII market”, with smaller firms and black and minority ethnic (BME) firms finding renewal tougher than the wider profession.

Separate surveys from Sweet & Maxwell and accountants BDO indicate that confidence is returning to the big law firms, with renewed interest in mergers and lateral hires, while also scaling back further plans for redundancies. But cross-selling and tighter credit control are also on the agenda.

The council of the Law Society of Scotland has today ditched its support for all forms of alternative business structures and instead backed a compromise that favours majority ownership of law firms remaining with solicitors, or solicitors with other regulated professionals.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority today recognised that it has “much to do” to build the confidence of law firms in their regulator if it is to succeed in delivering outcomes-focused regulation (OFR). The launch today of its consultation on how OFR will work also came with words of caution from the Law Society about the implementation timetable, cost and regulatory burden that may result.

Plans for a contract that will allow barristers to sue solicitors for unpaid fees, and a blacklist of solicitors who fail to pay up on all cases, rather than just privately funded ones, have been unveiled by the Bar Council.

The Institute of Legal Executives has called on the incoming government to protect the title of ‘legal executive’ as a matter of consumer protection as currently anyone can call themselves a legal executive regardless of whether they have any legal qualification.

One of Lord Justice Jackson’s own assessors – the Senior Costs Judge, Peter Hurst – has cast doubt on the judge’s recommendation that referral fees be abolished, it has emerged. The news comes ahead of two influential reports examining referral fees that are to be published next month.

This week’s Question of Ethics from the Solicitors Regulation Authority asks whether you should take action if you are told that a colleague is drinking heavily and abusing his partner – and whether conduct outside the office is ever a matter for the regulator.

Barristers were yesterday given the tools to bolt a corporate vehicle onto their chambers which can bid for work, instruct solicitors and also bring clerks and others into ownership roles. The Bar Council’s new business model, dubbed ProcureCo, raises the possibility of barristers competing with solicitors for work.