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Increasingly demanding business clients and the need to raise capital to invest in technology to bring legal costs down will eventually lead to more commercial law firms listing on stock exchanges, according to a senior corporate adviser. He said listing offered a number of advantages.

The High Court has criticised an unregulated legal business run by a non-practising barrister for “sailing too close to the wind” by failing to be clear in correspondence that it was not a solicitors’ firm. However, service of a claim by the company on behalf of a litigant in person was not invalid.

The Conservative Party is to press on with reforming personal injury, with a pledge in its election manifesto today to “reduce insurance costs for ordinary motorists by cracking down on fraudulent and exaggerated whiplash claims”. It has also promised to “strengthen legal services regulation”.

The first ever investor conference aimed at the business of law in a listed environment has heard that while investment opportunities in the legal sector are limited, the sheer value of assets makes it attractive. The broker which organised it said: “We remain convinced that we will see more legal services businesses using a listing over time.”

The Lord Chief Justice has signalled concerns about the impending reform to educating law students, saying that a “very broadly based legal education” and law schools “as the centres of excellence” must not be diluted. Lord Thomas said the start of a legal career “must be at law school”.

A Court of Appeal ruling this week that exonerated claimant personal injury solicitors of gaming the system for low-value road traffic accident claims is also evidence that the Solicitors Regulation Authority needs to take more care when dealing with complaints by parties to litigation, it was argued yesterday.

A one-stop shop for SMEs launched this week has set itself the goal of changing both the way legal and financial services are delivered and the way professionals work. By employing a “doubly disruptive philosophy”, it might be possible to break free not only of traditional business models but of traditional labels such as lawyer or accountant, the firm says.

A barrister who claims to be a “master strategist and tactician” was reprimanded last week for making “offensive” comments about a child abuse victim while her mother sat in court. He said the 16-year-old “was not a young and innocent girl” as he represented her attacker in the Court of Appeal.

In-house lawyers have been significantly slower to adopt technology than their counterparts in business, according to a prominent legal technology innovator. Former in-house lawyer D Casey Flaherty, an advisor to Dentons’ lawtech incubator NextLaw Labs, said lawyers as a group were “reluctant” to embrace technology

There are many improvements that can be made both to the law and to court processes to ensure that justice is not simply “the preserve of the rich”, the Labour Party said today as Jeremy Corbyn unveiled its manifesto for next month’s election. It included pledges to widen legal aid eligibility and introduce no-fault divorce.