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The Legal Services Board has begun work on whether it could and should introduce a voluntary regulation scheme for currently unregulated legal services providers. As part of a wider package of work on unregulated providers, it is also to investigate in depth their role in the will writing and estate administration, family law, and intellectual property markets.

A Hull law firm has been closed by the Solicitors Regulation Authority because there was “reason to suspect dishonesty” on the part of a partner and member of staff. Companies House showed that HSBC has a fixed and floating charge over all of the firm’s assets.

Shareholders in Gateley – the first UK law firm to float – are to see the first fruits of their investment after the company announced an initial dividend on the back of strong first-half results. Gateley’s revenue for the six months to 31 October was up 10.9% to £29.6m, with profit before tax rising 11.5% to £2.9m.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has again criticised the way the Solicitors Regulation Authority prosecuted a case against a solicitor, after deciding that a partner who had a “genuine but misguided” belief about the status of one of his employees had not acted dishonestly in what he told his insurer.

The Bar Standard Board expects to regulate just 20 alternative business structures each year in the first three years after it becomes a licensing authority. Its prediction likely reflects caution prompted by the weaker than expected take-up of BSB-regulated entities.

The law firm acting on behalf of hundreds of investors in Quindell has today issued its letter of claim over alleged misrepresentations made by the company. Your Legal Friend – the consumer-facing brand of Liverpool firm Camps – has issued on behalf of an initial claimant group of 342 retail investors.

There is no “current procedure” by which the Solicitors Regulation Authority informs law firms that non-solicitor members of staff have been banned for working for them, it has emerged following a case where national firm DWF took on an employee who was later banned for an incident in her previous role.

The Law Society has condemned plans by the Solicitors Regulation Authority to revolutionise the training of solicitors, warning that they could “promote nepotism” and favour “wealthier students”. The plans include introduction of a Solicitors Qualifying Examination.

A law firm has become a minority investor in a legal tech company, in what is understood to be the first move of its kind. Taylor Vinters said it wanted to develop new technology through collaboration with other businesses,

A pioneering online legal business aimed at SMEs has obtained an alternative business structure licence to reassure clients nervous of engaging with internet-based legal advice services that it is also a regulated law firm.