Company & Commercial

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.

There is no need for new legislation on smart contracts because the existing laws of England and Wales can accommodate them, the Law Commission has said.

National law firm BLM launched a subscription service for commercial work this week which it describes as “a long-term project which will change the way we work”.

A litigation analytics company is using machine learning to help lawyers predict the outcome of intellectual property cases, in what is believed to be the first move of its kind in the UK.

A virtual legal business based in the UK has launched what it believes to be the first global trade mark search, registration and watching service entirely run by lawyers.

PocketLaw, a start-up aiming to provide a one-stop shop for the legal needs of SMEs, has secured further funding of £1.2m, while an online divorce service has named a top judge as an advisor.

The work of lawyers advising large companies has become harder because clients are not as concerned to protect their reputations as they once were, the solicitor boss of the CMA has said.

Immigration and civil litigation were the two areas of legal practice hit hardest by the pandemic last year, with private client and family law “insulated” from the impact, new research has found.