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Well-known legal expenses insurer Elite Insurance has joined the select group of companies to turn their in-house legal teams into an alternative business structure, Legal Futures can reveal. The Gibraltar-domiciled company aims to reduce its overall claims and legal spend.

Law firms that charge clients for money laundering due diligence checks are at risk of breaking the rules, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has warned in a report that in the main painted a positive picture of how firms are approaching their responsibilities in relation to anti money laundering.

An pioneering commercial law firm is offering computer coding training for its lawyers and clients to teach the emerging technology behind ‘smart’ contracts. The firm has also reported a growth in the recruitment of computer-literate lawyers who also have a scientific or technical background

The chief executive of the Solicitors Regulation Authority has responded to strongly-worded criticisms this week from the Legal Services Board by the describing its report as “the best ever” received from the oversight regulator. However, Mr Philip admitted that there were parts of the report and performance review where the SRA had a “different opinion”.

Lawyer-led alternative business structures are leaving their rivals behind, the head of North West firm Jackson Canter has said. Executive chairman Andrew Holroyd was speaking as the firm announced the acquisition of Lees Solicitors, doubling its size to over 280 staff.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has put conditions on the return to the law of a former Law Society council member who was once found by a Crown Court judge to have been “wholly unsuited” to running a legal practice.

The lack of independence between the legal regulators and representative bodies risks undermining the credibility of regulation and allows the likes of the Law Society and Bar Council to delay reforms that would benefit competition, the Legal Services Board said yesterday.

The Legal Services Board has strongly criticised the Solicitors Regulation Authority over failures in its enforcement work and IT systems – and also warned about the risk that the overhaul of the Handbook “may be too much” for firms and the regulator to cope with. However, the LSB said the legal regulators collectively had all made “substantial progress”.

Free2Convey, the conveyancing portal designed as a free rival to the Law Society’s failed portal Veyo, is to relaunch itself to conveyancers, estate agents and the public “within weeks”, it has emerged. Matt Lancaster, who has led work on the portal, said he hoped it would be used by most conveyancing firms by the end of this year.

A legal rating and review website, set up last autumn by the former chief operating officer of QualitySolicitors, is to launch a crowdfunding bid next month targeting law firms. ReviewSolicitors wants to raise at least £150,000 from 50 law firms.