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“Concerned words” about diversity and social mobility need to be turned into action through changes to the way the criminal courts operate if junior barristers are to be retained, the Criminal Bar Association has warned. The association’s vice-chair said it had recently received “a surge” of complaints of bad listing practices.

“Fundamental market change is on the horizon” for the largest law firms in the country, with the possibilities of technology the driving factor and new business structures and external capital needed to accommodate them, the annual law firm report by PwC has concluded.

A solicitor has been struck off for engaging in “a systematic course of conduct designed to undermine the immigration system”. His actions amounted to a “persistent” abuse of court process by issuing meritless judicial reviews to get his clients’ removal from the UK delayed, a tribunal ruled, saying its decision should act as a deterrent to others.

The Bar Council has strongly attacked a plan by the Bar Standards Board for the compulsory registration of youth court advocates, the first scheme of its type. It said the move did not address the “underlying issues of low pay and status” in the youth courts and risked deterring barristers from undertaking the work.

NAHL, the marketing business that owns National Accident Helpline, has created its second alternative business structure (ABS) licence in partnership with national law firm Lyons Davidson. The ABS will trade under the name National Law Partners and it is expected to begin operating in November 2017.

Metamorph Law, the alternative business structure looking to consolidate small law firms, has made a south-west conveyancing law firm its fourth and biggest acquisition of the year so far. It has taken over BPL Solicitors, a firm with revenues in excess of £5m and staff of around 100, based in offices in Dorchester, Bristol and Bournemouth.

The Ministry of Justice has today issued a call for evidence that it said would give ministers “a greater insight into the reported rise” in fraudulent holiday sickness claims, but displayed caution in the use of the oft-cited figure of a 500% increase in cases.

Beaumont ABS – the alternative business structure owned by US giant LegalZoom – has said it is heading towards a “sizeable” profit next year after its first accounts showed a £2.1m loss. This was due to a significant and planned-for investment after it bought Wakefield law firm Beaumont Legal in early 2016 for £6.4m.

A senior barrister has explained why she took to Twitter to shatter a longstanding “taboo” by discussing the emotional impact on advocates of “rude” or “abrasive” judges. She said it was time “for someone to put their head over the parapet and talk about the things that upset us and acknowledge that these things hurt”.

A one-time member of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives has been jailed for providing unregulated immigration advice. Prince Adewale Adeola, 53, was sentenced to five months’ imprisonment at Woolwich Crown Court, having pleaded guilty to 11 charges.