Legal Services Act

The UK is on the cusp of a “litigation revolution” involving boutique alternative business structures offering externally-funded contingency fee deals, according to the chairman of the Solicitors Regulation Authority, speaking at yesterday’s Legal Futures conference.

Will-writing and estate administration should become reserved legal activities, the Legal Services Board has recommended. The long-awaited conclusions of its statutory investigation also highlighted the need to improve standards among regulated providers like solicitors.

The Legal Services Board is to examine whether ‘general legal advice’ given to consumers should be regulated, it announced today, but has rejected the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s call for all solicitor-type services to be reserved.

Law centres and other not-for-profit organisations should be allowed to charge for advice to help counter the impact of legal aid cuts and reduced local authority funding, the Legal Services Board said today.

Two barristers and solicitor have opened the first law firm dedicated to bringing private prosecutions. Edmonds Marshall McMahon is focused particularly on fraud, counterfeiting and corporate crime.

A team of senior corporate financiers has joined forces with a law firm management consultancy specialising in alternative business structures to target mid-market law firms, Legal Futures can reveal.

The American Bar Association has dropped plans for any changes to its policy prohibiting the non-lawyer ownership of law firms. Having rejected more radical ideas such as ABSs, it had proposed a form of legal disciplinary practice.

There is evidence that the quality of legal advice is “too often sub-standard”, meaning the safety net for consumers needs to be enhanced, the Legal Services Consumer Panel said today as it launched its work programme for the next year.

The Legal Services Consumer Panel has escaped the government’s consolidation of consumer advocacy and information into Citizens Advice – for now. The move was strongly opposed by the Legal Services Board but supported by the Law Society.

One of the country’s largest barristers’ chambers has joined forces with Instant Law UK, as it rolls out its library-based video-conferencing service. Users will also have access to the first interactive, online debt and employment law service, in conjunction with a London law centre

Any form of non-lawyer ownership of law firms is bad for clients, nine leading general counsel have claimed. The group of US-based in-house lawyers said they also detected no great interest in or need for non-lawyer ownership.

The Legal Services Board has hit back at the “misguided” criticism of its role, saying that experience has proven the need for its “forceful facilitation”. Its response to the Ministry of Justice’s triennial review comes after severe criticism from some of those it oversees.

The Legal Services Board should have its budget slashed so as to rein in its ambitions to move beyond a supervisory role, the Law Society has claimed. However, the SRA, CILEx and Council for Licensed Conveyancers have been more measured in their criticism.

Our regular round-up of news includes Quindell Portfolio’s latest acquisition, Simmons & Simmons moving City work to Bristol, the SRA’s City adviser joining Obelisk Legal, the Law Society withdrawing its PII broker list, and much more besides.

The Legal Services Board yesterday rejected a bid to allow licensed conveyancers to conduct litigation and advocacy, after more than a year of consideration. It had run into fierce opposition from the Lord Chief Justice and the Law Society.