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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.

The Legal Ombudsman has to improve its performance, the chief ombudsman admitted yesterday as its annual report showed that it lagged badly on the speed with which it dealt with complaints. However, user satisfaction with the service – the proxy used for quality – was well above target, although it fell significantly on the year before.

The government is planning to create a UK-wide £650m “legal services marketplace” from which the public sector will procure commercial legal services, it has emerged. It will cover central government departments and their associated bodies, including the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, along with the wider public sector.

Singapore has begun marketing itself to UK law firms wanting to access Asia’s lawtech start-up community, as well as UK start-ups wanting to expand beyond these shores, with what it says in south-east Asia’s first lawtech accelerator.

A sole practitioner who was struck off six years ago has won the right to sue for loans he made before his East London firm was closed by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. A deputy High Court judge ruled that eight out of 19 loans at issue did not vest in the Law Society (acting through the SRA) on the date of the intervention.

Basic digital housekeeping like keeping software up-to-date and backing up data separately from your network will solve most cyber-security issues – with corporate espionage one issue law firms have to face – according to a former assistant director of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation.