Market monitor

Unregulated providers are leading the way with developing consumer-facing legal technology, showing that the way solicitors are regulated is “not an obstacle to innovation”.

Employment and commercial work are seeing the biggest increases in demand from clients, research has found. However, lockdown has had a “devastating impact” on other practice areas.

The Law Society and Bar Council have urged the government to act on a report from MPs that that would help lawyers who have fallen through the gaps of the coronavirus support schemes.

Employment lawyers could be about to see a surge in enquiries, with data from Citizens Advice showing that people are becoming increasingly concerned about redundancy.

Law firm mergers are still being planned, despite the coronavirus pandemic, although they may take longer to get over the line, experts have predicted.

Small law firms have been hit hardest by the lockdown, a survey of the impact of Covid-19 on the profession has found but overall firms have “largely seen only a minor impact on business levels”.

An advocacy services firm which attended over 6,000 hearings last year has become an alternative business structure so it can add qualified advocates to its team of solicitors’ agents.

New instructions have been running at about 70% of the pre-lockdown level over the past two and a half months, but there are definite signs of a revival, with conveyancing roaring back, data shows.

Two young paralegals have launched an unregulated legal contracts business which provides fixed-price services for mainly online businesses in the UK, the USA and Europe.

A group of lawyers has begun crowdfunding to support a new initiative aiming to combat racial injustice by facilitating access to justice, funding and legal representation.

Some law firms suffered “serious falls” in revenue during May and, without a pick-up in new instructions in June and July, “the pain may become unbearable”, new research has warned.

Taylor Rose TTKW is set to pay £1.4m to buy McMillan Williams, which was sunk by slowdowns in both the property market and personal injury settlements, and its high level of gearing, it has emerged.

The new Community Justice Fund has already awarded over £600,000 in grants to the legal advice sector to help it cope with the Covid-19 pandemic.

The liquidators of Asons have settled their claim against its successor practice, after alleging that the controversial personal injury law firm was sold at an undervalue.

A solicitor and his wife have used WhatsApp video to witness a will made by a man who was very ill with Covid-19, it has emerged.