Company & Commercial

Law firms can not assume they have a fixed place on a client’s roster, with 45% of clients changing which practices they allocate work to in the past year, new research has warned.

A law firm advising on a dispute over the sale of Sheffield United FC was negligent, including in failing to advise that it had an own-client conflict, the High Court has ruled.

The most common types of digital securities can “easily be accommodated” within existing English law, the UK jurisdiction taskforce of the LawTech Delivery Panel has concluded.

A start-up founded by a City solicitor that creates visual models of complex legal transactions is aiming to double in size by the end of next year after raising almost £3m in funding.

The magic circle law firms are being attacked from all angles and pressure from US practices in particular means they may have to reinvent and reposition themselves, a corporate adviser has warned.

Unregulated legal business The Law Boutique has teamed up with a magic circle law firm Linklaters and its own contract management platform to provide companies with an “holistic” service.

Digital law firm arch.law has announced a “strategic investment” in Connectd, a platform linking the founders of start-ups, investors and advisers.

The chief executive of a contract platform which provides businesses with free open-source templates backed by artificial intelligence has reported “exponential growth”.

Business rescue and recovery firm Leonard Curtis is eyeing acquisitions as part of plans to double the £2.6m turnover of its law firm in the next three years, Legal Futures can report.

The aim is to double the £2.6m turnover of Leonard Curtis Legal (LCL), an alternative business structure launched six years ago, within the next three years.

Listed insolvency litigation funder Manolete saw its turnover and profit fall significantly in the last year due to Covid but is now seeing “strong growth in new case enquiries”.

A tech-driven Australian law firm offering SMEs unlimited, on-demand legal services on a subscription basis has set up in the UK, aiming to be the most visited law firm website within three years.

Appeal judges have rejected a company director’s challenge against the assignment by an insolvency practitioner of a claim against her parents to a litigation funder.

Civil litigation should be conducted “with cards on the table – face up” and the courts should not “sanction an act of deliberate concealment” by one of the parties, appeal judges have ruled.

City firm Charles Russell Speechlys has been ordered to pay two former clients nearly £1.5m after a High Court judge found its advice on the sale of their company negligent.

A “standardisation-focused legal community platform” has been launched by the team behind oneNDA, the initiative which created a standard non-disclosure agreement used by 600 organisations.