News

It is “absolutely inevitable” that criminal legal aid practices will need to morph into a cross between a solicitors’ firm and barristers’ chambers, one of the founders of a groundbreaking firm in the north-east of England has claimed.

The Bar Standards Board (BSB) will become a specialist regulator of entities providing advocacy services, if proposals set out today are approved. Under the plans, BSB-regulated entities could not have passive investors, would need a majority of managers who can practise as advocates in the higher courts, and could only have a maximum of either 10% or 25% of non-lawyer managers.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission is host a meeting between the Law Society, black and minority ethnic solicitors, and professional indemnity insurers in a bid to agree a plan of action to improve insurers’ equality practices. It was called in after the Law Society judged insurers’ response to examples of alleged discrimination in the 2009 renewal process to be “wholly inadequate”.

The second part of our interview with Professor Richard Susskind on the publication of an updated edition of his book, The End of Lawyers?, looks at ABSs, the threat of legal publishers entering legal services, and why he is next training his sights on the professions generally.

The Cabinet’s reducing regulation committee has given alternative business structures (ABSs) the green light and they will happen on 6 October 2011, justice minister Jonathan Djanogly confirmed today. Mr Djanogly said “no one should be under the illusion that I wish to delay ABS introduction, and all lawyers should be preparing for its introduction”.

The will-writing debate moved towards the end-game today after the Legal Services Consumer Panel launched its investigation into whether the industry should be regulated. However, the Legal Services Board is currently trying to secure £110,000 in funding for the panel to undertake market research.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority and Bar Standards Board are in discussions about creating a joint online consumer network involving the general public, Legal Futures has learned. The move follows pressure from the Legal Services Consumer Panel for the frontline regulators to improve engagement with consumers

In the first of a two-part interview to mark publication of the updated edition of his book, The End of Lawyers?, Professor Richard Susskind tells Legal Futures Editor Neil Rose how the recession and the growth of legal process outsourcing are changing lawyers’ attitudes to change.

The “golden age” is over for barristers as the Bar faces falling income and shrinking numbers, a new report has claimed. However, the Bar still has “an enormous amount in its favour”, according to leading legal consultancy Jomati, which also found evidence of a correlation between the best-performing sets and large numbers of QCs and marketing staff.

Law firms that fail to embrace “legal process management” will quickly lose out to new competitors, such as accounting firms, legal publishers and businesses fuelled by external investment, Professor Richard Susskind has warned. The legal IT and strategy guru has also criticised the approach of many large firms to making cuts during the recession.