Legal Services Act

Law firms embracing artificial intelligence are expected to create new business models to pass on the benefits to clients, research by City giant Herbert Smith Freehills has suggested. The way trainees learn about the law will also change and may reshape in the traditional pyramid shape of the large firms, it said.

Almost half of City firms view Brexit as a threat and more than two thirds see other professional services firms as the overwhelming threat among recent entrants to the profession, according to a survey published yesterday. It found that almost a quarter of City firms named Brexit as the biggest challenge to their future success.

The Legal Services Consumer Panel has given strong backing to the Bar Standards Board’s proposal to reduce the standard of proof in disciplinary proceedings from the criminal to the civil standard. “[It] will be fairer on consumers, and it may act as a positive incentive for barristers to deliver good services,” the panel said.

The Chartered Institute of Legal Executives has become the latest legal regulator to apply to license alternative business structures. Chartered legal executives have been able to set up their own law firms since 2015, but not if they have non-lawyer ownership or investment.

Redde, the AIM-listed accident management company that owns two law firms has recorded strong annual results, with turnover up 25% and profits increasing 16%. It also laid out how it is growing the services offered by its main firm, pioneering alternative business structure NewLaw Solicitors, into areas other than road traffic-related claims.

Conveyancing work has fallen to its lowest level since the middle of 2013, and the number of firms actively doing the work hit a new low, a survey has found. While the top five firms have been “insulated” from the lull in the market, the smallest operators outside the top 1,000 conveyancing practice have suffered the most.

National law firm Gateley has told investors that its decision to list on the London Stock Exchange will help it withstand potential economic uncertainty caused by Brexit. Its annual report also showed that finance director Neil Smith was the top earner among the senior management in the year to 30 April 2017.

Slater & Gordon has announced yet another eye-watering loss for its last financial year, mainly due to yet another write-down of goodwill – this time of £215m – following the acquisition of Quindell’s professional services division. It is also to spin off its UK operation into a separate business.

Peace Crowell, a niche US firm specialising in energy and infrastructure projects, has opened a London office as an alternative business structure (ABS). In other ABS news, Simpson Millar has sold its financial services arm, Metamorph Law has made another acquisition, and Irwin Mitchell has unveiled encouraging financial results.

Law firms have been warned not to charge excessive fees for payment protection insurance claims, while claims management companies were told that becoming alternative business structures was not a way to avoid caps on their fees.

Specialist sports and events agency The Sports Consultancy has launched an alternative business structure to add to its services for rights holder, major event, venue and city clients. It described The Sports Consultancy Legal as “the next step in the evolution of the business’s offering and the first ABS of its kind.

The Ministry of Justice is moving ahead with the introduction of price competition and larger contracts for court-based duty solicitor advice for housing cases, despite overwhelming opposition from respondents to its consultation. Just five out of 51 respondents agreed with it on price competition.

The Legal Services Consumer Panel has fired a warning shot across the bows of the Solicitors Regulation Authority, saying it needs to put more consumer protections in place before pressing ahead with its controversial plan to allow solicitors to practise from unregulated firms next year.

Legal comparison website The Law Superstore is to focus on generating lower-cost leads rather than more expensive solid instructions, after it was bought by a similar site for property services. According to the outgoing managing director, it was the decision of the site’s private equity backers to sell the business to reallymoving.com.

A business that supplies unregulated legal services to SME clients worldwide via a virtual law firm using more than 100 consultant lawyers, has added an alternative business structure to its group to offer regulated services to UK consumers.