Legal Services Act

Law firms should offer “paralegal services” to cut the cost of advice on family matters, the Legal Services Consumer Panel has suggested. In a report for the Legal Services Board, the panel also called for greater use of unbundling and fixed fees.

A new unregulated law firm is using unregistered barristers to offer small businesses “unlimited legal advice” for as little as £49.50 per month. Philip Harmer, founder of LawPlan, said the business “set out to give value, which seems like an impossibility in the legal world”.

There should be a two-tier system of legal regulation that distinguishes between those branches of the profession that hold client money and those that do not, the chairman of the Costs Lawyer Standards Board has argued.

More than two decades’ experience of alternative business structures has shown lower rates of complaint against lawyers than in traditional firms, a law firm headquartered in Washington DC, which allows non-lawyer ownership, has argued – as lawyers and businesses keen on the legal market lined up against each other.

Corporate clients are bleeding law firms without them realising it, as work is funnelled away to cheaper providers by in-house counsel who wish to avoid confrontation over pricing, according to a report. The steady process of commoditisation was behind the shift, it said.

Well-known legal expenses insurer Elite Insurance has joined the select group of companies to turn their in-house legal teams into an alternative business structure, Legal Futures can reveal. The Gibraltar-domiciled company aims to reduce its overall claims and legal spend.

An pioneering commercial law firm is offering computer coding training for its lawyers and clients to teach the emerging technology behind ‘smart’ contracts. The firm has also reported a growth in the recruitment of computer-literate lawyers who also have a scientific or technical background

The chief executive of the Solicitors Regulation Authority has responded to strongly-worded criticisms this week from the Legal Services Board by the describing its report as “the best ever” received from the oversight regulator. However, Mr Philip admitted that there were parts of the report and performance review where the SRA had a “different opinion”.

Lawyer-led alternative business structures are leaving their rivals behind, the head of North West firm Jackson Canter has said. Executive chairman Andrew Holroyd was speaking as the firm announced the acquisition of Lees Solicitors, doubling its size to over 280 staff.

The lack of independence between the legal regulators and representative bodies risks undermining the credibility of regulation and allows the likes of the Law Society and Bar Council to delay reforms that would benefit competition, the Legal Services Board said yesterday.