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If the Legal Services Board is serious about promoting access to justice it must end its silence on the legal aid cuts, lawyers’ organisations have said. The Bar Council accused the oversight regulator of acting like “another department of government” by refusing to comment.

A partner in a South Yorkshire law firm who failed to disclose on the financial statement for his own divorce proceedings ownership of a second property has been struck off by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal. He falsely stated that the proceeds of sale of the building had been invested in a failed property venture.

High street solicitors are losing out to specialist conveyancing businesses in capturing clients, new research has shown, but all lawyers still have much to improve on client communication. More than a third of clients would even consider paying more for a premium service, it found.

The Law Society and the Criminal Bar Association are discussing the possibility of a new career path for criminal lawyers involving both defence and prosecution work, it has emerged, after the CBA chair warned of the “decimation” of both the criminal Bar and the solicitors’ profession if no action was taken to tackle an “unprecedented recruitment crisis”.

New competition since the introduction of alternative business structures, along with client demands is changing the face of the legal market, research has suggested, with the number of ABSs now topping 1,000. It also showed that 44% of law firms are now incorporated companies, while the number of traditional partnerships shrinking to only 17%.

A solicitor convicted of contacting her imprisoned client by mobile phone – sending him 102 text messages in less than three months – has been suspended from practice. The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal found that she was under intense competitive pressure after setting up her own firm and had come to use texting as a convenient way to contact clients.

Legal professionals will escape the artificial intelligence revolution relatively unscathed compared to other occupations, with high educational achievement being a key factor, according to a major report on the long-term impact of automation on jobs.

Listed law firm Gordon Dadds has made its third acquisition in a month in buying Cardiff firm Thomas Simon. The acquisition vehicle is paying £1.875m plus an amount related to net tangible assets. If all the turnover targets are met for the four firms it has bought since listing, Gordon Dadds will have paid around £20m.

A solicitor has been “severely reprimanded” by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) after he compounded an error made by his firm 15 years previously when it failed to follow instructions over a property transfer. It is not a sanction that is seen any more but the SRA said it was available when the events took place a decade ago.

Applications were up in the latest round of an accelerator programme for lawtech start-ups run by a London law firm, with smart contracts among technologies of particular interest, it has emerged. Six companies will win through to work with Mishcon de Reya from the “concept through to revenue-generating stage”.