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Efforts to recruit an initial 2,500 barristers to direct access website MyBarrister failed miserably, it has emerged in a court ruling that details an ongoing dispute with the recruiters charged with signing them up. “These were, as things turned out, demanding targets,” the judge observed.

Almost half the staff at SME law firms say their firms have been attacked by fraudsters within the past 12 months, a survey has found. At the same time, the research into how firms are responding to risk management and compliance found evidence more generally that firms are “turning regulation into a business driver”.

Personal injury lawyers, conveyancers and other solicitors who arrange or advise on insurance policies face new rules under a European directive coming into force next February, dealing with issues such as conflicts of interest and commissions.

Obelisk Support – the outsourcing company that uses former City solicitors to provide temporary support services to in-house teams and law firms – is eyeing up its first international office after it was the only legal business to join London Mayor Sadiq Khan on a trade mission to Paris.

There needs to be a “more diverse and innovative legal services market” in England and Wales that attracts new providers and offers new opportunities “for the current and future legal profession”, the Lord Chancellor has said. David Lidington also hinted that further regulatory reform was still on the agenda.

A family law solicitor who held out his unregulated company as being an authorised law firm has been sanctioned by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. It is the second such case in a matter of weeks and it has again been resolved by way of a regulatory settlement agreement.

Legal clients of all stripes need a human or human-like experience rather than technology alone and there is a key role for design to make the law work on a human scale, according to a leading academic. Margaret Hagan made the comments in the wake of her Legal Design Lab’s first law and design summit.

A ban on estate agents charging solicitors referral fees along with loosening the restriction on conveyancers acting for both seller and buyer were suggested by the government yesterday as possible reforms to improve the home-buying process. It also said it wanted to look at how competition in the conveyancing sector could be improved.

Law firms are facing a “pivotal moment” where they need to turn talk of improving efficiency into action, with those that are seeing the competitive advantage, new research has claimed. It said firms “appear to be in a holding pattern, pledging forward-looking action, while cleaving to traditional thinking”, such as hourly billing.

The Claims Management Regulator has stepped up its focus on businesses operating without authorisation, particularly those in the holiday sickness market, after receiving more than 200 complaints in just three months. It prosecuted one company earlier this month, resulting in a £40,000 fine.