Legal Services Act

Alternative business structure and consolidator Metamorph Law has completed its second deal by taking over niche practice SLC Solicitors. SLC, based in Shrewsbury, is an award-winning 50-person firm that acts for commercial and residential landlords and managing agents.

Slater & Gordon’s shares are “nearly worthless”, an analyst has claimed on the back of its dire half-year results earlier this week. He has set a target price of just 1c. The firm’s share price on the Australian Stock Exchange fell to an all-time low of 7c this week, although it jumped 40% in trading today to 10c.

A charity that provides legal help to the victims of trafficking and slavery has created a law firm to service immigration and employment law private clients, with the aim of funding its charitable work. It launched north London firm Saltworks – a community interest company – this week.

Plans by the Legal Ombudsman is to give comparison websites details of complaints against law firms will be delayed by the service’s computer problems, it has emerged. Kathryn Stone, the chief legal ombudsman, said she believed comparison websites “really are the disruptors” in the legal services market.

Pioneering law firm NewLaw is set to create more alternative business structure (ABS) joint ventures this year, it has emerged. The firm – which was itself just the fourth ABS to be licensed – already has seven joint ventures, with partners including the British Medical Association, the Royal College of Nursing and insurer Ageas.

Both the Legal Services Board and the Solicitors Regulation Authority are putting too much emphasis on promoting competition at the expense of the other regulatory objectives they are meant to uphold, the Law Society has claimed. But the SRA has said its plan to allow practising solicitors to operate from unregulated businesses is “overdue”.

Slater & Gordon will not be able to pay off the bank debt that falls due next year and will need the continuing support of its lenders “to continue as a going concern”, it admitted today while unveiling more disastrous financial results that showed a 38% fall in income in the UK.

Stowe Family Law – which claims to be the largest specialist family law firm in the country – has become the latest legal practice to accept private equity investment after signing a deal with mid-market backer Livingbridge. The plan is to build a “larger national footprint”, opening up to 30 additional offices over the next five years – it currently has 10.

The Lord Chief Justice has outlined his “strong opposition” to a bid to allow accountants to handle tax litigation and advocacy work – and in return come under fire from the body that would regulate them. Lord Thomas described the application by the Institute for Chartered Accountants in England and Wales as “entirely premature”.

Ulster University launched the UK’s first legal innovation centre last night, bringing together its law school, school of computing and intelligent systems, and global law firms Allen & Overy and Baker McKenzie. It aims to operate at the intersection between legal process innovation, technology and access to justice.

The total number of law firms registering conveyancing transactions rose 4% in 2016 to 5,572, halting five years going the other way, and they are busier than before the financial crash, new figures have shown. However, the overall trend of active conveyancing firms has been steeply downwards in the last decade.

A solicitor and barrister who act for an anti-asbestos campaign are in a legal battle over what confidential and privileged information was passed on by a supposed TV documentary maker who was actually placed in the campaign to spy on its activities.

The Legal Services Board has stepped up the pressure on the Law Society’s role as the approved regulator of solicitors by announcing a formal investigation into whether the Solicitors Regulation Authority has sufficient independence.

The recovery of Slater & Gordon’s UK business is going “slower than expected”, with trading results being adjusted downwards as a result, and the negative mood about the firm is now hitting its home business in Australia, it has admitted in a trading update that appeared to be preparing investors for disappointing half-year results later this month.

The Legal Services Board will next year carry out the first formal assessment of how the profession’s regulators have performed in improving diversity in their parts of the law, it has announced. Publishing its revised diversity guidance, the board said, however, that it expects to see the guidance influencing activities this year.