Legal Services Act

Co-operative Legal Services may look to acquire a conveyancing practice as it brings property work in-house, it revealed yesterday. The revelation came during a press briefing that laid out the Co-op’s strategy more clearly than ever before.

The Co-operative Group has today announced plans to create 3,000 jobs in the legal sector as it laid out its ambitions to create the largest consumer law business in the country. It will also offer face-to-face advice in all 330 of its bank branches.

Two junior barristers from Liverpool have launched a public access service which offers legal advice to consumers for a £150 fixed fee. It comes as a new fixed-fee ‘find a solicitor’ site seeks to target those who are just above the eligibility threshold for legal aid,

The Intellectual Property Regulation Board (IPReg) will apply this year to become an alternative business structure licensing authority, it has emerged, joining the Solicitors Regulation Authority and Council for Licensed Conveyancers.

Lawyers’ legal education and training should be aimed at the specific activities they will be authorised to practise rather than at achieving a particular title, the Legal Services Consumer Panel has urged.

The Bar Standards Board is to push back against a Legal Services Board demand that it implement a regulatory regime for immigration specialist barristers by the end of 2012, saying the LSB has failed to produce evidence it is necessary.

The Stobart Group – which yesterday made the surprise announcement of its intention to enter legal services – will today begin advertising its barrister-led offering, which aims to cut out the “waste” of instructing a solicitor separately.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority is to push ahead with changes to the SRA Handbook that will leave it to in-house lawyers to decide whether the law requires that their legal teams become alternative business structures.

Logistics business the Stobart Group – home of the famous Eddie Stobart truck fleet – has today launched a new service to link members of the public and businesses direct to a barrister without needing to employ a solicitor.

AIM-listed online conveyancing business In-Deed – which last year became the first business to announce its intention to invest in law firms – has today begun its acquisition programme after admitting that its direct-to-consumer model is not growing as quickly as hoped.

The Legal Services Board is likely to survive the government’s triennial review of its functions largely unscathed, despite a series of attacks from those it oversees, it has emerged.

LegalZoom, the leading US online legal documents service, is to boost its plans to open in the UK this year with an initial public offering in New York that aims to raise $120m (£75m). LegalZoom said international expansion was one of the main reasons for going public.

Alternative business structures may well herald the demise of hourly billing as legal practice becomes even more competitive, the Master of the Rolls has predicted. Contingency fees and price comparision websites will also play a role.

It is “demeaning” to suggest that non-lawyers becoming involved in alternative business structures are less likely to be ethical, the chairman of the Legal Services Board claimed last night. David Edmonds also pointed to a string of scandals involving lawyers.

A group of 15 law firms in Yorkshire and the north-east have joined forces with a specialist divorce coach and independent financial adviser to offer what they say is the first fixed-fee collaborative divorce service. There are plans to expand Dovetail Divorce Solutions across the country.