Practice Management
Listed legal group raises £2.8m to reduce reliance on bank facility
AIM-listed group RBG Holdings – which encompasses London law firms Rosenblatt and Memery Crystal – raised £2.8m in funding yesterday, slightly more than it had sought.
Number of cyber breaches at law firms up by 36% in a year
The number of reported cyber breaches at UK law firms jumped by 36% in 2022/23 as hackers increasingly target the profession, new figures show.
Solicitor constructively dismissed over return to work after giving birth
An associate solicitor has won her claim for unfair dismissal over the way her then law firm employer handled her return to work after maternity leave.
Firms billing more often to combat slow-paying clients
Many law firms plan to bill and collect more frequently to combat clients taking longer to pay as they try to reduce lock-up, a report has found.
“Unstuffy” ABS hits £7m turnover in less than five years
A Yorkshire alternative business structure founded in 2019 by a solicitor and non-lawyer has grown its turnover from £500,000 in year one to £7m as it expands its range of services.
Firms “asking staff to spend more days in the office”
More than a fifth of legal professionals across the UK have been asked by their employers to spend more time in the office, but few want to return to it full-time.
Law firm extends opening hours after staff move to four-day week
A Scottish law firm has extended its opening hours after most of its staff moved to working a four-day week, the latest to experiment with this new way of working.
New ICO certification for lawyers gives “certainty” on data processing
The Information Commissioner’s Office has approved a certification scheme which it says will provide law firms, chambers and others with “certainty” when processing personal data.
KPMG Law chief: GenAI will reshape conversations about billing
Generative AI will move lawyers further away from hourly billing and into discussions with clients about the need for a commercial return on their investment in the technology.
First law firm B Corp calls in B Corp ALSP
Bates Wells, the first UK law firm to become a B Corp, has started working with alternative legal services provider Obelisk Support, while Freeths has become the largest legal B Corp.
Blog
Change in regulator shouldn’t make AML less of a priority
While SRA fines for AML have been climbing, many in the profession aren’t confident they will get any relief from the FCA, a body used to dealing with a highly regulated industry.
There are 17 million wills waiting to be written
The main reason cited by people who do not have a will was a lack of awareness as to how to arrange one. As a professional community, we seem to be failing to get our message across.
The case for a single legal services regulator: why the current system is failing
From catastrophic firm collapses to endemic compliance failures, the evidence is mounting that the current multi-regulator model is fundamentally broken.
