Legal Services Act

Sheffield law firm SSB Law has left the QualitySolicitors network to focus on its own brand instead at a time when it says “the traditional law firm approach has a limited future”. It said it joined because “there was a basis for a national brand” but over time there was “an increasing conflict” with its own brand.

PwC – the first of the ‘big four’ accountants to gain an alternative business structure (ABS) licence – has become a true multi-disciplinary practice by merging its connected law firm into the wider business, in a move that has been welcomed by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

Leading investor James Caan has sold his stake in Staffordshire-based law firm Knights Professional Services, Legal Futures can reveal. Mr Caan invested in Knights in 2012, since when the firm has grown its turnover from £8m to £40m and added complementary services to its core legal offering.

The time taken by the Legal Ombudsman to resolve cases increased over the summer, new figures have shown. The proportion of cases resolved within 90 days fell from 50% in June this year to 47% in July – against a target of 60%. This was caused by a “bulge” in cases being assessed.

The Legal Services Consumer Panel and the Legal Ombudsman are the latest organisations to come out against the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s proposal that practising solicitors be allowed to handle unreserved legal work for the public from unregulated firms.

The personal injury reforms (PI) first announced 10 months ago are still coming, despite the Brexit hiatus – so claimant lawyers have to be prepared, they were told at last week’s PI Futures conference in Liverpool. The default assumption had to be that change would happen.

The Legal Services Board has reacted angrily to a draft report from the International Bar Association which said the oversight regulator was subject to “a degree of government control”, because “the LSB is funded by the Ministry of Justice, and all its members are appointed by the Lord Chancellor”.

Profit is continuing to rise at Co-operative Legal Services (CLS), half-year results published today have revealed. In the first six months of 2016, sales rose 10% to £11m, and it made a £1m profit – having broken even during the same period of 2015.

Saga, the over-50s insurance and travel company, has closed its legal services business, Legal Futures can reveal – but said it may yet return to the market in future. The company was hit by the collapse last year of Parabis, with which it had set up a joint venture alternative business structure, Saga Law, in late 2013.

NAHL Group plc – the AIM-listed legal marketing and services business that owns National Accident Helpline – expects to play a “more pro-active role in the entire conduct and financing of a PI case” following the government’s next round of reforms, it told the stock exchange today.