Practice Management
VAT risk for law firms handling insurers’ claims work
New guidance on delegated authority claims handling by lawyers may create additional VAT costs for law firms and lead to disputes with their insurance clients, accountants have warned.
“Reproduction of the legal profession” at risk from automation
If junior associates are “gradually culled” from law firms as a result of automation, the “entire reproduction of the legal profession could be jeopardised”, a leading academic has warned.
Successor practice application against City firm “futile”
A successor practice application against a City law firm should be struck out, a High Court master has ruled, but only after the claimant has been given a chance to amend his claim.
Court orders insurer to cover negligent solicitors’ unpaid costs
The insurer of a negligent Italian law firm operating in London has been ordered to pay £3m in costs to the victims after the lawyers failed to pay up.
The Law Superstore relaunches 18 months after takeover
Legal comparison website The Law Superstore this week relaunched after spending more than a year switching to a simpler, lower-cost lead generating model.
MPs to probe access to justice impact of court modernisation
MPs are to probe the access to justice implications of the £1bn court modernisation programme. The justice select committee will consider issues such as the increasing use of digital technology.
Advice sector set to benefit from trio of new digital tools
LexisNexis, working closely with the Civil Justice Council and others, is poised to launch the first of three projects to create digital tools for the advice sector, it has emerged.
Top firm uses computer simulations to train new partners
UK/US giant Hogan Lovells is using computer simulations of legal practices to train new equity partners in how to run a law firm, it has emerged.
No TUPE protection for most staff shed in Lawyers Inc takeover
Only five out of 22 lawyers and staff who lost their jobs when Hull firm Ingrams collapsed were protected by the TUPE regulations when the firm was effectively taken over by an innovative ABS.
PDS employee “unfairly dismissed” after work with murderer
The Public Defender Service unfairly dismissed an employee who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder after her work debriefing a murderer.
Blog
From text to world: The legal significance of multimodal AI
The next phase of AI, already underway, will integrate text with vision, sound, motion and even touch. This will produce systems that no longer ‘read about’ the world but perceive it.
The new leaders of law
Where once many law firm owners remained technology sceptics, a growing number are now shaped by leaders who are digitally fluent and commercially oriented.
Managing lock-up, cash flow and billing inefficiencies better
If law firms view lock-up, cash flow and billing processes as key indicators of financial performance – and therefore risk – they can identify problems early.
