News

---

The chairman of the Legal Services Board has called on the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) to be more flexible in its approach to law firms which are looking to do deals with external investors before alternative business structures (ABSs) become a reality on 6 October 2011. In a major speech, David Edmonds also suggested that the rules which prevent solicitors having unregulated separate businesses carrying out unreserved legal work are anti-competitive.

The introduction of controversial new standard contractual terms for solicitors instructing barristers has been further delayed by confusion over the split of responsibilities between the Bar Council and Bar Standards Board, Legal Futures can reveal. The BSB also has a new director and has formally launched its chambers monitoring scheme.

Former Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer has returned to frontline politics by speaking for the Labour Party in the House of Lords. The architect of the Legal Services Act and arch Blairite is being joined on the frontbench by former legal aid minister Lord Bach, while the make-up and briefs of the Commons team have also been settled.

There is real potential for alternative business structures (ABSs) to have a positive impact on both the profession and consumers, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has said. The provisional conclusions of an equality impact assessment said solicitors would benefit from improved employment opportunities, while ABSs would facilitate improved access to legal services for consumers.

Indian outsourcing company Mangalam Information Technologies has set up an office in Manchester as it explores the opportunities for legal process outsourcing (LPO) in the UK, including “low hanging fruits” such as personal injury (PI) and conveyancing work. It comes as UK-based LPO providers estimated that they could reduce transactional costs in PI by up to 30%.

Australian law firm Slater & Gordon – the first in the world to go public – is keeping a close eye on developments in England and Wales and would consider entering the market, its managing director has revealed. Andrew Grech also gave an insight into the lengthy process they went through to float.

Over half of all law firms have either lost business to a non-lawyer competitor or expect to in the future, a new survey from accountants Baker Tilly has revealed. Some 29% of firms with 25 partners or fewer had already lost business to a non-lawyer competitor, compared to 12% of larger practices.

There has been a 47% jump in the number of solicitors struck off and the figure is now at its highest for over a decade, the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has revealed. Some 84 solicitors were removed from the roll in the year to 30 April 2010, compared to 57 in the previous 12 months. It is the highest number since at least 1999, which is the furthest back Legal Futures has been able to trace.

The Legal Ombudsman has added his voice to concerns at plans to merge the Legal Services Consumer Panel into Citizens Advice. He said that whatever happens, he will still “need someone I can talk to who I believe truly represents consumer interests… Unfortunately, for all its virtues, Citizens Advice cannot do that.”

Solicitors’ firms put off becoming limited companies by the complexity of conversion from partnerships are missing out on “very substantial” tax savings, according to one former firm that incorporated successfully three years ago.