Practice points

Regulators need to monitor the development of legal technology and issue guidance to help maximise the opportunities it presents while delivering the necessary protection for consumers.

A law firm sacked its administrator by sending him a brief WhatsApp message – and then backdated his P45 to support an argument that he was actually fired earlier, an employment tribunal has found.

Criminal and civil lawyers have separately spelt out to MPs on the justice select committee a catalogue of ways in which court modernisation is undermining access to justice.

Deloitte Legal in the UK is looking to ramp up its technology strategy as it bids to exploit its perceived advantage in providing multi-disciplinary services across the world.

A City firm has launched an off-the-shelf smart contract for insurers which triggers an automatic payment to a solar power company if it is cloudy, while a legal tech company has attracted £1.2m in investment.

A future Lord Chancellor could impose “quite radical changes” on the court system unless changes are made to the Courts and Tribunals (Online Procedure) Bill, peers have warned.

British lawyers are more likely to be bullied in the workplace than their colleagues elsewhere in the world, the largest ever global study of bullying and sexual harassment in the legal profession has found.

Sole practitioners have overtaken small firms with two to four partners in terms of profit per equity partner, a survey has found. Sole practitioners also led the way in fee income growth compared to larger firms.

A new campaign, #SupportingSolicitors, has been launched to promote the help available to solicitors facing professional and personal challenges. It goes live today at the start of Mental Health Awareness Week.

The UK has launched the first step in its bid to make English law the bedrock of a future where digital smart contracts and distributed ledger technology are the norm in the global trading of goods.