Legal Services Act

Family lawyers offering unbundled legal services should be wary of charging clients on an hourly basis, the Law Society has warned. It said “this could increase the risk of the retainer being more broadly interpreted”.

Stobart Barristers – the direct access service run by the famous logistics company – has given a strong indication that it will bid for the new criminal legal aid contracts the government is set to offer under price competitive tendering.

New legal brand Dynamo Legal is set to receive a major publicity boost next week when its founder appears on The Apprentice in a bid to win Lord Sugar’s £250,000 investment for the business. Alex Mills is looking to recruit 245 firms to the network.

The row over Legal Services Board-commissioned research that recommended removal of the cab-rank rule stepped up a further notch yesterday after one of the academics who conducted it hit back at the critiques published by the Bar Council and Bar Standards Board.

A claims management company specialising in interest-rate swap mis-selling could become an alternative business structure in order to litigate its own cases. All Square Treasury has just announced the appointment of a legal director.

The status quo over reserved and unreserved legal activities is unsustainable and the answer may be for all legal advice to be regulated, the chief executive of the Legal Services Board has suggested.

A barrister who has built a thriving direct access practice through a public-facing website is considering whether an alternative business structure will help him deal with the problems caused by the ban on conducting litigation.

Corporate services provider Jordans has turned to the head of legal at a leading business process outsourcer to spearhead its planned alternative business structure. Debbie Farman, formerly legal director of Vertex, will lead a team of lawyers, paralegals and corporate compliance experts.

A legal advice charity in Leicester has become the first not-for-profit organisation to set up an alternative business structure (ABS), Legal Futures can reveal. The Community Advice and Law Service has won approval to launch Castle Park Solicitors Community Interest Company.

A proposed statutory duty on frontline regulators to consider economic growth must not be used to probe the business plans of new entrants to the market or block “risky business models”, the Legal Services Board has cautioned.

A law firm offering ‘click and collect’ legal services plans to double in size after securing its alternative business structure licence. Leeds firm Winston Solicitors originated as an online-only legal practice from managing partner Jonathan Winston’s spare room 10 years ago.

Requiring all 10,000 law firms to report non-material breaches to the Solicitors Regulation Authority is “unsustainable and cannot be justified”, the regulator’s board will be told today. Meanwhile, the number of firms and individuals facing action over COLP/COFA nomination failures has risen to 928.

A new collective marketing brand called Dynamo Legal has today announced plans to recruit 245 law firms across England and Wales and build a £7m advertising warchest. It is the brainchild of Welsh businessman Alexander Mills, who previously founded a company selling slate signs.

Co-operative Legal Services has today made its major move into family law services by unveiling a telephone advice service for those people still able to claim legal aid help and a network of 78 face-to-face locations across England and Wales.

Kathryn Mortimer, head of legal services for the DAS UK Group, has been named managing director of its new law firm, DAS Law. DAS Law was created after the legal expenses insurer was granted an alternative business structure licence.