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The number of authorised claims management companies has plunged by almost 40% since the Financial Conduct Authority took over regulation last April, and has refused to authorise one for the first time.

A collaboration of lawyers, calling itself the Chancery Lane Project, is to publish a set of model laws and contract clauses later this month to help the profession around the world fight climate change.

There are no special rules allowing regulators such as the Financial Reporting Council to override the protection of legal professional privilege, the Court of Appeal has ruled.

Partners and staff at listed law firm Gateley sold £11m worth of shares yesterday – making £27m since it went public – amid a burst of news about listed legal businesses, including Knights and Redde.

The Bar Council has launched an outspoken attack on a planned 20% rise in the budget of the Legal Ombudsman. The Law Society also strongly opposed the move.

Law firms must recognise that the market for wills is changing and that younger people are attracted by online wills, after research showed the average age of will-makers was 58.

Smaller law firms are unable to pay the high salaries that top candidates for jobs are demanding and this is putting them under economic pressure, a survey of 4,000 practices has concluded.

A solicitor who sent “inappropriate, derogatory and offensive emails” to a client and his mother, describing him as a “sad and pathetic man”, has been censured by a tribunal.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority could face a cash shortage if the new anti-money laundering rules increase the number of firms it supervises, it has warned.

The American Bar Association yesterday encouraged states to consider “innovative approaches to the access to justice crisis” but made clear it was not recommending alternative business structures.