Practice Management

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.

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.

Lawyers’ use of generative AI is accelerating quickly but there is a major mismatch between in-house and private practice expectations of the impact on billing, new research has found.

There is a “higher level of confidence” among law firm buyers and “clear signs that the scale and pace” of M&A will increase in 2024, a report has found.

Employee-owned law firm Ison Harrison doubled the turnover of its commercial division last year, partly by advising other businesses on how to become employee-owned.

The number of lawyers talking to wellbeing charity LawCare about problems of workplace bullying and harassment more than doubled last year.

Pressure from managers or other colleagues is the biggest and still growing concern for young lawyers, who are pushing back on the hours they are expected to work.

Fletchers Group, the serious injury law firm owned by private equity, has continued its expansion by taking on the once-core motorbike work of Macclesfield firm Thorneycroft.

Regional law firm Muckle, based in Newcastle, has become the first in the North-East to become a certified B Corporation, changing its LLP agreement as part of the move.

Kent law firm Cripps has secured B Corporation certification, one of the biggest law firms to do so, and said it would have to keep improving to meet a “higher bar”.