Legal Services Act

An American law firm that claims to have wealthy individuals and institutions lined up to inject money into its practice has lost its latest effort to challenge the ban on non-lawyer investment, this time in New York.

Fairpoint Group plc – the AIM-listed business that has bought four law firms – today told investors that they would not see the benefits of its restructuring until 2018 as it warned that performance this year will drop. Its revenue from legal services revenues jumped 32% to £41.8m in 2016, but are likely to dip 15% this year.

The McKenzie Friend Marketplace, which hopes to help hundreds of law students find paid work offering legal services, has responded to criticism from practitioners by announcing that it will ban active students from providing legal advice – although they will be able to give clients other types of support.

The Legal Services Board is to review the conduct of the Law Society since autumn 2014 to determine whether Chancery Lane interfered with the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s independence, it has emerged. The wide scope of the investigation indicates that the board will dig deep into the society’s internal workings.

A prominent solicitor-turned-barrister specialising in insurance litigation has set up a chambers under the oversight of the Bar Standards Board, which eventually will offer litigation in addition to advocacy. Stephen Hines is also the vice-chairman of the Forum of Insurance Lawyers.

MPs have approved the appointment of Wanda Goldwag as the new chair of the Office for Legal Complaints – the body that oversees the Legal Ombudsman – as it also emerged that she has small shareholdings in two major alternative business structures.

Slater & Gordon announced another sliver of good news, with the Australian Securities and Investment Commission deciding to take no further action following an investigation into whether the firm’s accounts had been falsified. We also round up other ABS news, including a law firm created by a London corporate services business.

A second-year law student in London has launched an online ‘marketplace’ for McKenzie Friends that he hopes will be boosted by “hundreds” of fellow students taking up the opportunity to gain practical experience and offer services to the public on a paying basis.

A south Wales law firm has secured a £432,000 grant from the Welsh government to establish a global intellectual property anti-piracy business in Cardiff. The business – which will create 71 jobs by 2020 – is being spun off by CJCH Solicitors, which has expanded in recent years to include a standalone anti-piracy and compliance offering within its IP division.

There needs to be a “root and branch” review of the complaints process run by the Legal Ombudsman, with the speed with which complaints are resolved a particular concern, according to the prospective chair of the organisation’s governing body.