Market monitor
Leading injury firm sold on five years after last acquisition
Fast-growing Leeds firm Switalskis has acquired specialist medical negligence and personal injury practice Pryers from Pure Business Group, which only bought the firm itself five years ago.
MoJ: 2021 is set to be a “big year” for legal aid
This is set to be a “big year” for legal aid, a senior Ministry of Justice official has predicted, amid warnings of the heavy strain alternative advice sources are under.
NewLaw to charge whiplash clients up to 30% under DBA
Leading personal injury law firm NewLaw will charge clients up to 30% of their damages to handle small claims going through the new whiplash portal, it has revealed.
Law firms “should remove printers before staff return”
Law firms have been advised to remove many of their printers before staff returning to the office this summer from lockdown start using them again and increase costs.
Goodwill and co-operation needed to make whiplash reforms work
Goodwill and co-operation between claimant and defendant representatives and compensators will be needed to overcome some of the problems the new whiplash regime throws up.
Top QC: It’s bordering on Luddite to ignore direct access
The former Counsel General for Wales has struck out on his own as a sole practitioner and embraced direct access, saying it is “bordering on Luddite” for barristers to ignore it.
Value of legal services market “unchanged by pandemic”
The value of the UK legal services market remains unchanged at £36.7bn, with a slump in revenue during the first lockdown followed by an increase in the last quarter of 2020, a report has found.
Bar Council launches sustainability network as law firms target net-zero emissions
The Bar Council has launched an initiative to help chambers “transition to a more sustainable way of working”, saving not just carbon emissions but costs too.
Consumer claims firm aims to treble headcount in two years
A consumer claims law firm in Liverpool that has doubled its headcount to 65 in 12 months despite Covid is set for massive expansion by trebling in size over the next two years.
Judge refuses to grant solicitor injunction after slurs
A High Court judge has refused to grant a solicitor a permanent injunction to enforce undertakings made by the son of a client that he would stop making defamatory statements.
Blog
Change in regulator shouldn’t make AML less of a priority
While SRA fines for AML have been climbing, many in the profession aren’t confident they will get any relief from the FCA, a body used to dealing with a highly regulated industry.
There are 17 million wills waiting to be written
The main reason cited by people who do not have a will was a lack of awareness as to how to arrange one. As a professional community, we seem to be failing to get our message across.
The case for a single legal services regulator: why the current system is failing
From catastrophic firm collapses to endemic compliance failures, the evidence is mounting that the current multi-regulator model is fundamentally broken.
