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The Law Society’s freedom of information adjudicator has criticised the Solicitor Regulation Authority for giving an “unfortunate impression” that it is not committed to transparency because of the way it handled disclosure requests relating to struck-off solicitor Alan Blacker.

A typical law firm in the future will accommodate a new generation of disruptive technologies, such as virtual assistants, machine learning and automation, but legal services must not lose their human touch, a major Law Society report on technological innovation has urged.

A legal business which employs paralegals to handle straightforward work directly for clients while managing qualified lawyers on the advisory aspects of their case, has been launched by a serial legal services entrepreneur. He describes it as the UK’s first “para-law firm”.

Pioneering alternative business structure Triton Global has been acquired by national law firm DWF in a pre-pack administration deal that saves all 215 jobs. Triton is a multi-disciplinary insurance business combining legal advice, claims administration and loss adjusting that became one of the first ABSs to introduce employee ownership.

A financial health analysis of law firms based on annual accounts has predicted that at least 500 firms are heading for collapse in the next three years, with law firms at greater financial risk than businesses as a whole – but the profession was warned that the toll could be higher still.

The Law Society’s governance troubles – with the resignation of chief executive Catherine Dixon earlier this month – are proof that it is “unsuitable” for any role in the regulation of the profession, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has told the Legal Services Board.

The Ministry of Justice has revived the idea of price competitive tendering for legal aid contracts – this time for court-based duty solicitor advice on housing. The proposals would cut the number of housing duty solicitor schemes by more than half, from 117 in 2015-6 to 48.

Some 31,000 jobs at law firms and other businesses in the personal injury (PI) sector are at ‘high risk’ of being lost if the government presses ahead with its reform agenda, according to an economics consultancy commissioned by the pressure group, Access 2 Justice.

The president of the Law Society and chief executive of the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) have clashed in public over the latter’s controversial proposal to allow solicitors to practise from unauthorised businesses. They also sniped at each other over the independence of the SRA.

An artificial intelligence (AI) lawtech start-up which claims its product can predict how courts will rule in tax cases with 90% accuracy, in on course to expand into this country. The Canadian company hopes to exploit the similarity of the tax systems in Canada and England and Wales.