Legal Services Act

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.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority and Council for Licensed Conveyancers have been given a clean bill of health by the Legal Services Board in its latest assessment of regulators’ performance.

A group of claimant and defendant representatives and judges has outlined a range of concerns about next year’s whiplash reforms, including claims management companies exploiting injured people.

The head of the first ‘teaching law firm’, Nottingham Law School’s Legal Advice Centre, has said it is “busier than ever” helping clients, many of whose problems are related to the pandemic.

The case for wholesale reform of the way legal services are regulated is even stronger than it was four years ago when the Competition & Markets Authority last recommended it, the watchdog said today.

Talks about a reverse takeover of NAHL Group – the owner of National Accident Helpline – by fellow listed company Frenkel Topping are to continue into the New Year, they announced today.

More than a third of consumers believe that video witnessing of wills is “a good alternative” to being there in person, according to a major study, while a majority are happy to have an online consultation.

A brand management company owned by London law firm Mishcon de Reya has acquired a Philippines-based business to boost its Asian presence, among various deals struck recently in the legal market.

The LSB has sketched out a future where most households have a legal expenses insurance policy to access a wide range of legal services, and there are approved ‘simple legal products’ in the market.

There are “high expectations” among law firm leaders of consolidation in the legal services market during 2021 and beyond, research has found – although there is often little strategy behind deals.

Demand for family and private client services recovered in the second quarter of this year as the impact of the first national lockdown began to take effect, research has found.

Alternative legal services providers “lag behind the leading law firms by quite a margin” in Europe, but their use of technology is “impressing clients”, a report has found.

As many as 3,000 law firms could be forced to close or merge over the next few years after the conveyancing bubble bursts and the recession really kicks in, a leading law firm consultant has warned.

A senior solicitor at the Environment Agency is suing a director of a garden centre business for libel and harassment after he successfully prosecuted the man for waste offences.

A professional services consultancy specialising in advice to foreign businesses wanting to set up in the UK has become an alternative business structure after “exponential growth” in 2020.