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Two barristers have launched a Bar Standards Board-regulated entity offering commercial advice as an alternative to traditional chambers, hoping to pass on the savings from low overheads to clients. Lorna Hackett and David Dabbs have formed Hampshire-based Hackett & Dabbs.

The online court should be trialled alongside physical courts for five to 10 years because so many people will be excluded – some one in five according to government figures – from accessing digital-only services, according to a leading researcher.

The Bar Standards Board has found itself under attack from multiple directions this week, including the Supreme Court announcing yesterday that it would hear an appeal about a case involving claims of race discrimination in its disciplinary processes.

Relationships between CMCs and solicitors over holiday sickness claims are under investigation, the Claims Management Regulator revealed yesterday. It comes in the wake of the ABTA claiming that CMCs have moved onto holiday sickness cases as more lucrative sources of work than whiplash.

Artificial intelligence could have a knock-on impact on legal services for poorer people, such as weakening pro bono assistance by cutting the number of commercial lawyers, according to a report by leading researcher into online law, Professor Roger Smith.

A ‘brain drain’ of lawyers caused by Brexit is already happening, a senior Clifford Chance partner has told MPs on the justice select committee. Simon Gleeson, lead legal advisor to the main UK banking and financial services industry bodies regarding Brexit, said corporations were already moving in-house lawyers to mainland Europe.

Large law firms should consider becoming “general contractors” to manage their clients’ disaggregated legal needs amidst growing demand from in-house lawyers to use alternative legal services providers – with the Big Four accountants a threat “that cannot be overstated” – a new report has suggested.

A solicitor who lied to clients and ignored a High Court costs ruling has been struck off by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal and ordered to pay costs of nearly £100,000. His ABS was the first to be closed by the SRA on the grounds of a manager’s suspected dishonesty.

Lawyers must be prepared to give their clients advice rather than a range of options, the managing director of a fast-growing wealth management and legal services firm has said. The Progeny Group has doubled in size in the past year to 70 staff, including 15 lawyers, and aims to grow just as quickly this year.

A solicitor who thought he was selling his practice so that he could retire, but in fact inadvertently allowed criminals into his practice to commit property fraud, has been suspended after admitting he was naïve and had behaved like “an idiot”.