Solicitors lose claim over losses caused by tax mitigation schemes
Partners at a leading personal injury law firm have lost a professional negligence action against the accountants who recommended they sign up to two ultimately unsuccessful tax mitigation schemes. They succeeded at every stage of their claim only to fall at the last when the judge ruled that they brought the action out of time.
Hudgell lines up yet more deals as it targets continued growth in troubled PI market
Hudgell Solicitors – the personal injury firm that publicised its willingness to buy firms, departments and files through the website webuyanyfiles.com – has another three transactions in the wings, which will take it to 35 deals since the Jackson reforms were implemented in 2013.
Exclusive: Online divorce business acquires family law firm
Online Legal Services Ltd – the company that runs the pioneering Divorce-Online website – has acquired south Wales family law firm Peter Thomas Law, Legal Futures can reveal. It will enable Divorce-Online to capture the work arising from more complex divorces that is currently outsourced to other solicitors.
SDT lifts 20-year-old supervision order on former legal executive
The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has overridden the objections of the Solicitors Regulation Authority to lift a supervision order imposed on a legal executive after misconduct that took place almost 20 years ago. He had made four false travel expense claims on three fictitious client files.
BSB to review training role of Inns of Court
The Bar Standards Board is to review the role of the Inns of Court in the training of barristers, it has emerged. Among the issues are applying admission requirements, approving pupil supervisors, providing training courses for pupils and student discipline.
Direct access chambers and specialist financial services set launch BSB ABSs
A ‘virtual’ chambers that supports direct access work has set up an alternative business structure, as has a niche financial services chambers, which become the second and third to be regulated by the Bar Standards Board. It licensed its first ABS, a collaboration between a London chambers and football agents, earlier this month.
SRA expects investment scams to increase calls on compensation fund as value of open claims hits £42m
The Solicitors Regulation Authority is anticipating a bump in claims on its compensation fund as a result of solicitors becoming involved in dodgy high-yield investment schemes, it emerged yesterday. Meanwhile, it batted away renewed complaints about the recent decision to close board meetings for the first time since the SRA was created.
Flexible resourcing business for in-house teams and law firms hits 1,000 lawyers
Obelisk Support – the outsourcing business that uses former City solicitors to provide temporary support services to in-house teams and law firms – has hit the 1,000-lawyer mark. Set up in 2010, it has doubled in size in less than three years and founder Dana Denis-Smith said she hoped to do so again in the next two years.
Keep calm and carry on: BSB finds no evidence of “widespread change” at the Bar
Widespread change” is yet to happen at the Bar, with only a small minority of barristers planning to change the way they work or charge fees, a report for the Bar Standards Board has found. Despite the presence of “strong drivers for change”, the report said this did “not necessarily equate to a need or desire for a new approach”.
High Court strikes out negligence claim against private client firm
The High Court has struck out a negligence claim against London private client specialists Harcus Sinclair on the grounds that it was statute-barred. The judge said it could not be argued that a partner had deliberately concealed his conduct when it was “done in plain sight” of his client and other parties’ lawyers.
