Latest news
Exclusive: First Bar Standards Board ABS closes down
The first alternative business structure licensed by the Bar Standards Board – a combination of barristers and football agents – has shut down, Legal Futures can reveal.
Guidelines “preserve GCs’ independence amidst corporate tension”
Comprehensive guidelines to boost the roles of and relationships between in-house lawyers and non-executive directors have been drawn up, in the hope of minimising the chances of an ethical lapse.
Elevate secures £20m investment to continue growth spurt
Global law company Elevate – which bought UK law firm Halebury earlier this year – has secured a $25m (£20m) minority investment as it continues to scale up.
Privy Council backs law firm in battle over “franchise arrangement”
The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council has backed a leading offshore law firm after it was denied permission to open an office in Bermuda by the local bar council.
“Formal periodic reaccreditation” for lawyers back on the table
The Legal Services Board is set to begin work on a a review of continuing competence that will revisit the possibility of formal periodic reaccreditation for lawyers.
Eversheds uses ABS to build £100m alternative legal services venture
Eversheds Sutherland is to hive off three of its ‘alternative’ legal services teams into an alternative business structure, from which it will seek external investment to help more than double revenue to £100m.
£13k fine for ops chief who resold firm’s mobiles highlights ABS anomaly
The former head of operations at well-known media law firm Schillings has been banned from working for solicitors after reselling the firm’s used mobile phones and pocketing the proceeds.
Accountants bring the one-stop shop to Cornwall with new ABS
An accountancy firm in Cornwall has set up an alternative business structure to provide will writing, trusts and power of attorney services – which it says is the first one-stop shop of its kind in the county.
SDT president: Concerns over civil standard of proof “misplaced”
Concerns over the decision of the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal to move from the criminal to the civil standard of proof are “misplaced”, the tribunal’s president has said.
Anger with MoJ over whiplash reforms begins to boil over
Both the claimant and defendant representatives have expressed frustration with the progress of the government’s whiplash reforms, and doubted it will be ready for April 2020 as planned.
Blog
From ‘year zero’ to £6.5m – how a law firm found its second life
In 2018, I hit what I call ‘year zero’. On paper, Olliers Solicitors was a top-tier criminal defence firm but beneath the surface, I could see we were at a crossroads.
Linklaters’ chief growth officer takes the ‘blank sheet’ challenge
In the third and final part of this series, Lucy Murphy, chief growth officer at magic circle firm Linklaters, outlines her vision for the law firm of the future.
The ‘blank sheet’ challenge, part 2 – what would you do differently?
In the second part of this blog series, Shainul Kassam, managing director of small London firm Fortune Law, sets out how she would set up a law firm now.
