Legal Services Act

Listed law firm Knights continued its consolidation play yesterday by announcing a £5.3m deal to buy Surrey firm Mundays, as we also report on activity at two insurance-led ABSs.

The effects of furlough or lack of work in the past year has had a “devastating” impact on solicitors, with a record number turning to The Solicitors’ Charity for help, the organisation said today.

Approval for a 13% increase in the budget of the Legal Ombudsman has come with a warning that it must make deliver this time or face losing its role in dealing with complaints against lawyers.

Embracing online reviews can trigger a positive, service-driven culture change at law firms, the practice director of a leading West Country firm told last week’s Legal Futures webinar.

America now has its first two alternative business structures, approved in the state of Arizona, to go alongside an increasing variety of businesses in a regulatory sandbox in Utah.

A multi-disciplinary corporate finance group set up by a Cardiff-based law firm has added accountancy expertise to its offering, while consolidator Metamorph Law has unveiled its latest acquisition.

A solicitor who won a female innovators award is to put her £50,000 cash prize to building an automated platform that will provide cost-effective legal support to start-ups.

Lawyers are set to work alongside recruitment consultants in a platform for self-employed professionals taking shape in the West Country that aims to build an internal marketplace.

Manchester-based JMW has accepted damages of £45,000 plus costs from rival law firm Hayes Connor that admitted plagiarising a letter drafted by JMW on 242 occasions.

The Legal Ombudsman has scaled back its planned increased budget for the coming year, but it is still set to increase by 13%, or another £5 per lawyer.