Big law firms, Law Society and top academics back launch of major lawtech incubator
A host of leading law firms, the Law Society and universities have teamed up with Barclays Bank to launch the most significant lawtech incubator in the UK to date. The ‘Eagle Lab’ will open soon in Notting Hill, in west London, with the aim of creating a centre of excellence.
Legal market “inept” at dealing with vulnerable consumers, says watchdog
The legal market has proven “inept” at responding to the needs of vulnerable consumers and its regulators are not coming up with a strategy to tackle the problem, the Legal Services Consumer Panel has said. The watchdog said it was also concerned that regulators were not thinking about consumer confusion sufficiently as they looked to make the market more flexible.
Bar Council finds mixed picture of success for BME graduates getting BPTC places and pupillages
The link between ethnicity and success on the Bar professional training course and in attaining pupillage is more nuanced than the big gap between white and non-white candidates presented by the Bar Standards Board, the Bar Council has claimed. New research said some ethnic groups performed as well as their white counterparts, while others did not.
Lack of detail in Civil Liability Bill will “severely limit parliamentary scrutiny”, peers warn
The government should set out the definition of whiplash and the levels of compensation claimants will be due on the face of the Civil Liability Bill, rather than leaving them to secondary legislation, so that peers and MPs can understand what they are voting on, a parliamentary committee has said.
CILEx Regulation seeks to reassure Lord Chief Justice over alternative business structures
CILEx Regulation has moved to reassure the Lord Chief Justice over his concerns about its application to license alternative business structures. The regulator of chartered legal executives said that it would only look to regulate firms “that are relatively low risk and straightforward”.
BSB investigates how chambers advertise for and recruit pupils to check for “unjustified” barriers
The Bar Standards Board is reviewing whether there are “unjustified and discriminatory barriers to pupillage” at the advertising and recruitment stage, Legal Futures can reveal. Forming part of the Future Bar Training programme, it reflects concerns that access to pupillage is one of the biggest barriers to increasing diversity at the Bar.
Ethics expert calls on SRA to take tougher approach to NDAs
The Solicitors Regulation Authority needs to take a tougher approach to non-disclosure agreements, a leading legal ethics expert has told MPs. Professor Richard Moorhead linked the issue to a wider approach to ethics among solicitors that he described as “minimalistic professionalism”, including wrongly seeing the client’s interests as paramount.
Barrister suspended for repeating false rape claims about colleague and contacting his wife
An experienced barrister has been suspended from practice for seven months for repeating false rape, assault and conspiracy to murder claims about a fellow barrister in the robing rooms of Crown Courts. He also contacted that barrister’s wife, a solicitor, on LinkedIn, and suggested that her husband was in trouble.
Government “unlikely” to hit April 2019 target for PI small claims limit as solicitor warns of “have a go” culture
One of the claimant solicitors working with the Ministry of Justice on the new small claims limit for personal injury cases says he is operating on the assumption that it will not happen until October 2019 at the earliest – six months later than the government’s target. He also warned that the reforms may unintentionally trigger a “have a go” culture among claimants.
Solicitor “abrogated any responsibility” for firm’s finances while partner used money to fund gambling habit
A solicitor who “abrogated any responsibility” for her firm’s finances, allowing her fellow partner to take £512,000 from its accounts over five years to feed his gambling habit, has been fined £20,000 by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal. She argued that he “deliberately concealed” his misconduct from her.
