News

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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.

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.

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.

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”.

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.

A secretary at a leading City law firm who submitted false cash advances and a paralegal who drafted misleading grounds of appeal in judicial review cases have both been banned from working in the profession.

A law firm has lost more than £100,000 from a property transaction after falling for an e-mail scam, it has been reported. It comes as a conveyancer who had already been convicted of fraud and banned from working in law firms has been convicted again after defrauding three firms where she secured employment after changing her name.

NAHL plc – the AIM-listed owner of National Accident Helpline – has lined up a second alternative business structure joint venture as it bids to double the cases it handles over the coming years, it has emerged in the wake of last week’s announcement of its first, Your Law, in association with NewLaw Solicitors.

A high-profile family law sole practitioner solicitor has acquired a Bar Standards Board-regulated entity because the no-frills regulation it offered was, she said, an “easy fit” for her low-risk practice. Oxford-based Alexandra Lewis Family Law Limited received BSB authorisation at the end of last month.

The Law Society abused its dominant position by requiring over 3,000 law firms to buy its own training in order to maintain their Conveyancing Quality Scheme accreditation, the Competition Appeal Tribunal has ruled. It is likely that the case will cost the society at least £1m.