Time to reform the Law Society council? Senior figure thinks it might be
The chairman of the body responsible for the make-up of the Law Society’s ruling council will today start the ball rolling on possible governance reforms amid concern over ever-falling interest among solicitors in who represents them.
Government rejects Low Commission call to make use of client account interest
The government has poured cold water on the use of interest on solicitors’ client accounts to fill the social welfare advice and support gap as recommended last week by the Low Commission.
Legal365 chief says city centre law shops are set to become reality
The long-awaited opening of Legal365’s first city centre law shop will take place this year, one of its architects has told Legal Futures. Legal365 is a joint venture between Yorkshire law firm Last Cawthra Feather and entrepreneur Ajaz Ahmed, the founder of Freeserve.
Diversity deadline looms for thousands of firms
More than 6,000 law firms have yet to submit their workforce diversity data to the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the regulator warned yesterday. They now have less than three weeks until the 31 January deadline for reporting the data collected from partners and staff.
Papers reveal Bar intransigence over BSB independence row
The Legal Services Board was on the verge of issuing an unprecedented public censure of the Bar Council over its interference with the independence of the Bar Standards Board, new papers have revealed.
SRA set to publish names of uninsured firms
The Solicitors Regulation Authority should this week publish a list of those law firms which were to have closed on 29 December because they failed to secure professional indemnity insurance, Legal Futures has learned.
Public access exemption for foreign clients coming to an end
The freedom for barristers to accept direct instructions from lay foreign clients – or from lay clients in England and Wales for a foreign matter – without having to undertake public access training is rapidly coming to an end.
Mayson moves on
University College London has scored a major coup by attracting Professor Stephen Mayson to join as an honorary professor in law. Previously head of the University of Law’s Legal Services Institute, he will be attached to the Centre for Ethics and Law.
SRA should reveal progress of malpractice investigations, says FoI adjudicator
The Solicitors Regulation Authority is keeping informants who allege malpractice by solicitors in the dark about the progress of their complaint, two years after the Law Society’s own freedom of information adjudicator urged that the problem should be addressed.
Report urges firms to swap ‘growth for growth’s sake’ with new ways of delivering legal services
Law firms need to re-examine their traditional business models and embrace change in how legal services are delivered if they are to survive, new research has argued. It said they need to build a better boat, not a bigger one.
