Legal Services Act

Slater & Gordon has entered into an agreement to acquire Quindell plc’s professional services division in return for upfront consideration of £637m, with an estimated £40m to follow from a 50% earn-out from existing noise-induced hearing loss cases.

The University of Law has become the first academic institution to be granted an alternative business structure licence by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. ULaw said the licence will allow it to expand its legal advice clinic at the Bloomsbury branch in London.

The Simplify Group – the legal services group that owns QualitySolicitors – has added online business Evident Legal to its portfolio. Evident began life in 2011 as a law firm franchise called Simplify the Law, before reinventing itself in late 2012 as an online document business.

The Legal Services Board has emphatically rejected calls to join the protests against legal aid cuts, and suggested instead that the profession needs to work harder to provide access to legal services.

More than 80% of barristers have declined to disclose information about their socio-economic backgrounds when asked to do so by their professional regulator, it has emerged.

One possible occupation for future lawyers will be as a computer programmer, writing code for apps or working alongside an independent legal technology provider, according to the vision of a leading futurologist.

A business offering unregulated legal services and HR consultancy is to launch an alternative business structure (ABS) to add reserved areas of law done in-house to its extensive menu of employment and HR advice.

Legal lead generator National Accident Helpline today unveiled strong results for its first year as an AIM-listed business and indicated that it will continue to move beyond its core of personal injury to other areas of consumer law.

The six-month time limit for clients to complain to the Legal Ombudsman (LeO) is to be doubled from this summer, it has announced. The new time limit, which takes effect from 9 July, runs from the date of receiving a final response from the lawyer.

There is no evidence of online divorce leading to regulatory risks, joint research by the Legal Services Board and Legal Services Consumer Panel has found. The report found high levels of satisfaction with face-to-face legal advice (79%) and online (83%).

Many lawyers, particularly solicitors and barristers, complain about their practising certificate (PC) fees, but there are high levels of ignorance about what they are paying for, a major cost of regulation survey has found.

QC status should be available to all advocates appearing in the higher courts, whether or not they are barristers or solicitors, the Legal Services Consumer Panel has said. It also reiterated its call for re-accreditation and ongoing competence checks for those with the mark.

Fairpoint Group plc – which last year bought two law firms – said today that its financial success in 2014 has laid the foundations for further acquisitions. The AIM-listed business hitherto focused on ‘debt solutions’.

Nottingham Law School, the first in the country to apply for an alternative business structure (ABS) licence, aims to offer young entrepreneurs a paid-for business advice service, it has emerged.

Quindell confirmed today that it is considering a deal with Slater & Gordon that would see the listed Australian firm buy its legal division for £640m plus receipts from the settlement of noise-induced hearing loss cases.