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There has been a sharp rise in the number of solicitors appearing before the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal amid claims that some “do not have the rounded set of skills to run a business”. The SDT’s annual report also revealed that it will be looking at whether the Solicitors Regulation Authority is to blame for delays in hearings.

The High Court has summarily dismissed a professional negligence claim brought by a hotel company against Midlands firm Wright Hassall and a barrister, Max Mallin. The case involved the conversion of a Victorian office building in Manchester into a four-star hotel.

Litigants with limited funds should use direct access barristers to represent them in court rather than pay for McKenzie Friends, the Bar Council has argued. The Bar Council, along with the Law Society and Chartered Institute of Legal Executives, supported the judiciary’s call for a ban on professional McKenzie Friends.

The chief executive of a pioneering set of direct access chambers has said victory in a group action at the Court of Appeal proves barristers can “cut out the intermediaries”. Carla Morris-Papps said direct access had meant “massive savings” for over 200 clients because the case had not gone through solicitors.

Defendant personal injury firm BC Legal is launching an unusual “client knowledge hub” in the City next month, which will provide a range of free services but “very little fee-earning”. It said the hub would offer training, software demonstrations and free access to meeting rooms, a roof terrace, a gym and a hotel.

A legal hackathon is to be held north of the border as part of a push to stimulate lawtech innovation among Scottish law firms and promote the use of technology in improving access to justice. Two broad challenges will be presented in the hope that technological solutions emerge, such as mobile phone or computer apps.

Legal specialisations are “essentially bogus”, Supreme Court judge Lord Sumption declared today as he urged practitioners to break out of their core areas and learn from other parts of the profession. He said he did not regard law as comprising distinct bundles of rules, one for each area of human affairs.

Only four organisations have so far taken advantage of a Solicitors Regulation Authority initiative that gives them access to information about all 10,000 law firms. On top of the searchable, online database of firms that was announced in March, this basic data was also made available to registered data re-publishers via a new web service.

People are avoiding regulation as immigration advisers by “purportedly acting as McKenzie Friends”, the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner has warned. It said they were “effectively frustrating the will of Parliament”.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has opened a second front in its campaign for full separation from the Law Society by appealing to the Treasury to intervene over the issue of money laundering. The Ministry of Justice is expected to reveal its plans on separation after the EU referendum.