Legal Services Act

The vast majority of law firms have made a profit since March, showing that predictions the pandemic would wreak havoc in the profession have not come to pass, according to new research.

The Legal Services Board has introduced new rules to ensure legal regulators explain more clearly how they spend the money they raise through the compulsory levies on lawyers.

Drinks giant Coca-Cola is to start penalising its panel law firms with reduced fees if they fail to deliver on diversity commitments, in a shift starting in the US and then expanding globally.

The boss of listed law firm Knights, David Beech, has cashed in £61m worth of shares, the company announced today, just under half of his stake in the business.

A joint venture alternative business structure specialising in dispute resolution for SMEs is launching a new service for law firms which it compares to “a concession in a department store”.

The Legal Ombudsman’s proposed 19% budget increase is not justified, the Council for Licensed Conveyancers has said in calling for an external task force to help it deal with complaints more quickly.

Senior in-house lawyers at large private equity firms are responsible for the cost of instructing law firms but lack the power to control it, a study has found.

Six in 10 barristers, rising to 80% of those doing publicly funded work, have taken on personal debt or used savings to get through Covid-19, while a quarter have taken on additional paid work.

Alternative business structures will not be allowed in New York for the time being because the case for them improving access to justice has not been made, a commission has decided.

The Law Society has told the Legal Ombudsman to ask the government for “Covid-related financial assistance” instead of expecting the profession to fund a proposed 19% budget hike.