Practice Management
Law firms not providing staff with the wellbeing support they want
Law firms are not responding to employees’ need for support with mental health and wellbeing, while those working flexibly are recording more hours than they did before the pandemic.
“Shambolic” solicitor suspended over disorderly closure of firm
A solicitor who ran his law firm in a “shambolic fashion”, taking on more than 100 new cases when it should have been in the process of closing down, has been suspended for three months.
Paralegal awarded £30k over pregnancy discrimination and low pay
A solicitor has been ordered to pay a paralegal over £30,000 after an employment tribunal found he discriminated against her once she became pregnant.
Huge scope for smaller law firms to improve ESG
There is huge scope for smaller law firms to improve their ESG performance, while all firms should have policies on which clients they will and will not work for.
Ask me anything – Allen & Overy adopts ChatGPT-style legal AI tool
Global law firm Allen & Overy has become the first law firm to adopt an AI assistant similar to ChatGPT to help speed up the work of more than 3,500 lawyers.
Six out of 10 lawyers “have experienced burn-out”
More than six out of 10 lawyers (62%) have experienced burn-out as a result of their work in the last year, a survey has found.
Top law firms invest in content marketing “which does not work”
A “significant proportion” of large law firms are investing in content or ‘inbound’ marketing schemes that “simply do not work as they should” and could even be damaging their reputation.
Fast-growing ABS expands again but this year’s focus is on profit
An alternative business structure which launched as a specialist conveyancing firm with three staff in March 2019 now has more than 100 in multiple practice areas as it opens a fifth office.
Recruitment “by far the biggest obstacle” to law firm growth
Recruitment is “by far the biggest obstacle” to the growth of law firms in 2023, with lawyers being “bombarded” with job offers, while addressing ESG is becoming more urgent.
“Massive value gap” for commercial clients paying by the hour
There is a “massive value gap” in commercial legal services, which are “way too expensive”, the chief executive of a leading new-wave law firm has argued.
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.
