News

Solicitors in private practice undertook pro bono work in 2010 estimated at £475m, a rise of 19% on the year before, Law Society research has found. The figure represents 2.3% of the total gross fee income for private practice last year.

Law firms facing a cash flow crunch are sharply increasing their borrowing to meet tax liabilities, a lender to the legal profession has reported. Syscap says loans sought by firms have almost doubled compared to this time last year, as they struggle to meet today’s tax payments deadline.

Scotland’s larger law firms saw a rise in profits last year despite a 11% dip across the profession as a whole, research has found. The Law Society of Scotland’s survey showed that average profits per equity partner fell from £72,000 in 2009 to £64,000 last year. It is the second consecutive drop, from a high in 2008 of £104,000.

Three magic circle law firms are among the first to back an online initiative aimed at helping underprivileged youngsters break into the professions. Allen & Overy, Slaughter and May and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer have signed up to accessprofessions.com, a charity website which connects students aged between 13 and 21 with career-enhancing opportunities.

The Legal Ombudsman (LeO) has passed a complaint to the Criminal Cases Review Commission after a solicitor and a barrister’s errors potentially led to a man’s conviction for theft, in one of 365 cases that the service has informally resolved so far, it has emerged.

The public believes that legal aid solicitors are not as good as other solicitors, research undertaken for the Law Society has found. Focus groups held in London and Birmingham either side of Christmas also revealed that the public think legal aid solicitors are paid private practice rates.

The miners’ compensation scandal shows that a maximum fine of £150m for misconduct or non-compliance by alternative business structures is too low, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has warned. With new entrants set to enter the legal market after 6 October, it was “perhaps dangerous to rely too heavily upon turnover figures in the current market to assess appropriate fining powers”.

It is not champertous for a solicitor to indemnify his client against paying the other side’s costs in the event of not finding insurance, the Court of Appeal ruled yesterday. It is thought that law firms may find themselves offering such arrangements more frequently in a post-Jackson/legal aid reform world so as to secure work.

The Office of Fair Trading and the Legal Services Commission have joined a host of consumer groups in calling on the Legal Ombudsman to name lawyers over complaints, with the commission saying it has a “right” to such information. The profession is united in opposition to the idea, with one law firm saying it is “rare” for a client to have a justifiable complaint.

Law firms should search the Internet regularly to ensure their identities have not been “cloned” by fraudsters, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has advised. The SRA issued the warning after recent fraudulent activity where bona fide firms and solicitors have had their identities cloned by criminals particularly operating advance-fee frauds.