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Barristers have a vital role in helping clients and witnesses understand the legal system but their own “distinct and tribal culture” is a barrier to doing so, a Bar Standards Board report has found. This culture was also seen as a barrier to improving diversity at the Bar.

This year could see small and medium-sized law firms struggle to match the growth of 2014 and 2015 as business levels settle into a new, post-recession norm, a major survey by NatWest has suggested. The bank also said that partners should be asking themselves whether the profit they made in 2015 was sufficient.

A solicitor whose lack of supervision contributed to a decision that a trainee’s two years of work did not count towards her qualification has been rebuked and fined £2,000 by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. It is the maximum penalty that the regulator can levy short of a referral to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.

Greater prescription of how client-care letters are framed could follow a Legal Services Board report yesterday that said “inaccessible language” used by lawyers prevents consumers from accessing legal services. It said other sectors have developed guides, logos and customer information which made buying services less daunting.

There will be more lawyers in the future, not fewer, the head of Rocket Lawyer UK has predicted. Mark Edwards said that the size of the legal services market would grow, and the playing field between regulated and unregulated law firms be levelled.

Conveyancers may need to be placed under extra duties of care so as to reduce the risk of fraudulent changes being made to the Land Register, the Law Commission has suggested. A major review of the Land Registration Act 2002 also put forward ways the law could encourage the development of electronic conveyancing.

The Bar Standards Board has received the green light to license alternative business structures. The approval from the Legal Services Board needs to be confirmed by the Ministry of Justice. The BSB’s initial focus will be on “low-risk, advocacy focused ABSs”.

This is a “considerable failure” of the legal services market to meet the needs of small businesses, a major lobbying group has told the Competition and Markets Authority. The Federation of Small Business said the barriers small businesses face in resolving legal problems were “numerous”.

The spread of virtual assistants will not remove the need for lawyers but it will reduce their number, the chief executive of Riverview Law has predicted. Karl Chapman said he was “amazed” by the number of lawyers doing things they did not need to do.

Crystal Legal Services, a claims management company (CMC), has seen off a challenge from Lloyds Banking Group to one of its PPI adverts after three other CMCs had fallen foul of complaints by the bank.