Legal Services Act

RBG Holdings plc is aiming to broaden its non-legal offering and reduce its reliance on the revenues of City law firm Rosenblatt, it said today as it announced strong results for the 2019 financial year.

NAHL – the listed company that owns National Accident Helpline – announced yesterday that it has furloughed a third of its staff amid a fall in personal injury enquiries.

Criminals are exploiting the coronavirus crisis and law firms may be more susceptible because of the financial pressures they are under, regulators have warned as we round up other key developments.

The rate of change in the legal market makes it “increasingly difficult” for the regulatory framework laid down by the Legal Services Act to remain relevant, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has warned.

Most law firms have implemented a furloughing strategy, looking at reductions of up to 40% in headcount to survive the coronavirus crisis, while partners are reducing drawings too, according to a survey.

Government schemes to help SME companies grow by offering investors tax relief exclude legal businesses and so constrict technological innovation in the market, it has been claimed.

The Legal Ombudsman is exploring whether to use big data and machine learning technology to suggest outcomes  and make recommendations in resolving complaints about lawyers.

Week three of lockdown saw the start of a cash squeeze on law firms, with no money yet from the government, and predictions of a grim summer, according to research.

Many of the technologies and techniques that have been “forged in the heat” of the coronavirus crisis will usurp old ways of practising when life returns to normal, Professor Richard Susskind has predicted.

A North-East law firm that pitched itself as the future of criminal legal aid practice a decade ago by combining barristers and solicitors was formally wound up last month.