Legal Services Act

The Legal Ombudsman’s proposed 19% budget increase is not justified, the Council for Licensed Conveyancers has said in calling for an external task force to help it deal with complaints more quickly.

Senior in-house lawyers at large private equity firms are responsible for the cost of instructing law firms but lack the power to control it, a study has found.

Six in 10 barristers, rising to 80% of those doing publicly funded work, have taken on personal debt or used savings to get through Covid-19, while a quarter have taken on additional paid work.

Alternative business structures will not be allowed in New York for the time being because the case for them improving access to justice has not been made, a commission has decided.

The Law Society has told the Legal Ombudsman to ask the government for “Covid-related financial assistance” instead of expecting the profession to fund a proposed 19% budget hike.

The boss of listed law firm Knights has outlined his ambitions to continue expanding the business across England, with Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland also in his sights.

A “troubling inequality” between BAME and White British consumers in the way they access legal services has changed little in the five years since it raised the issue, the consumer panel has found.

A law firm that works with non-legal businesses to offer SME clients a multi-disciplinary service is to convert to an alternative business structure so that they can share fees.

Leading commercial firm DAC Beachcroft has launched an “in-house chambers” which plans to expand rapidly and become “the biggest of its kind” by end of the year.

The year has kicked off with a spate of law firm expansion activity, whether through mergers, huge team hires, file acquisitions or one Essex law firm maintaining EU links by opening in Malta.

Talks about a reverse takeover of NAHL Group – the owner of National Accident Helpline – by fellow AIM-listed company Frenkel Topping have been called off.

Rising income from listed law firm Gateley’s non-legal businesses almost made up for the loss in turnover from its core legal work during last year’s first lockdown, its interim results have shown.

A commercial QC has taken the unusual step of setting up an alternative business structure with an accountant, in contrast with what he described as the “outmoded” chambers structure.

The Lord Chancellor today announced yet another delay to implementation of the whiplash reforms, pushing the date back a month to May this year, but lawyers are saying that more time is needed.

Acquisitive regional practice Knights was the only listed law firm to defy the Covid gloom and end 2020 with its share price higher than where it began, a Legal Futures analysis has shown.