Latest news

Some of the over £970m earmarked by the government for civil and criminal court reform should be used instead to stem the collapse in spending on legal aid, the Legal Action Group has suggested. It argued that the civil legal aid system was “in free fall” and the underspend in its budget over the last three years should be reinvested in an “innovation and early intervention” fund.

The case of three men charged with insider trading based on information they hacked from prominent US law firms “should serve as a wake-up call for law firms around the world”, a New York prosecutor has said.

City solicitor David Harrel has become temporary executive chairman of AIM-listed legal business Fairpoint Group after its chief executive, Chris Moat, stepped down. Meanwhile, Slater & Gordon announced last week that it is talking to its lenders about refinancing and recapitalisation.

Law firm entrepreneur Chris Nott, founder and senior partner of Cardiff firm Capital Law, was among those from the profession to be recognised in the New Year’s Honours. Vera Baird QC, one-time Labour MP and Solicitor-General and before that a criminal defence barrister, became a Dame for services to women and equality.

Tough sanctions for lawyers and other advisers who enable offshore tax evasion came into force on Sunday despite considerable disquiet expressed by the Law Society and others. The new powers will see individuals or corporates who take deliberate action to help others evade paying tax facing fines of up to 100% of the tax they helped evade.

A solicitor’s passing-off claim against her old firm for continuing to use her name as part of its branding has been thrown out by the court because the law firm owned the goodwill generated by her work. However, she did have a case to revoke the trade mark registered after the firm hired her to set up an employment practice.

A partner who altered a client file in an effort to conceal a mistake that made an estate liable for inheritance tax has agreed to leave the profession to halt her prosecution before the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal. We also report on the ex-solicitor and judge jailed for forging a will and other disciplinary matters.

Artificial intelligence will likely be better at predicting the outcome of cases than the most experienced QCs, the Lord Chief Justice has warned. He also flagged changes that would see unbundling, outsourcing, and lesser-qualified staff assisted by technology taking over some of the work now done by lawyers.

Three solicitors, including a former senior partner and managing partner, have been suspended by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal for their roles in a collapsed Brazilian property investment scheme. It comes in the wake of a major SRA campaign to warn the public about solicitors giving credibility to high-yield investment schemes.

Law firm employees could be clamouring to take anti-money laundering training, if a business that has applied computer game technology to training in a subject not normally described as ‘fun’ successfully gains traction. In the latest of our features on lawtech start-ups, we profile a company using games as the model for designing training courses.