Legal Services Act

The US law firm that pioneered the model of senior lawyers leaving big firms to take control of their own practices – and is the biggest of its kind – has opened in London, Legal Futures can reveal.

Community care legal aid “could disappear altogether” as a specialism as advice deserts expand, the Law Society has warned. Some 79% of local authorities now have no publicly funded services.

The Civil Procedure Rule Committee last week put off approving the rules for the new whiplash portal until next month, making the April start-date all-but impossible.

An alternative business structure that combines legal and political advice has hired Theresa May’s former chief of staff as well as a former chief of the defence staff.

Seven legal advice services have received support in the latest round of grants from the Access to Justice Foundation, which has been boosted by a major pledge from a well-known London law firm.

Large law firms are damaging their profitability by poor scoping of work and under-pricing it, and are also set to penalise lawyers who offer clients overly large discounts, a survey has found.

Merger activity among law firms continues apace, with deals done across the country – including a leading criminal legal aid practice that has completed two in rapid succession and is on the hunt for more.

The Law Society and Bar Council have strongly attacked plans by the Legal Ombudsman to extend its publication of information about complaints, arguing that it would not help consumers.

An alternative business structure owned equally by two law firms and an accountancy practice has recorded a 1,200% surge in post-tax profits.

Lawyers in the US capital Washington DC are the latest in America to try and remove the ban on ABSs, while the president of the American Bar Association is backing efforts to rethink regulation.