The demon drink
This week’s Question of Ethics from the Solicitors Regulation Authority asks whether you should take action if you are told that a colleague is drinking heavily and abusing his partner – and whether conduct outside the office is ever a matter for the regulator.
Barristers set to go head-to-head with solicitors for work with new corporate vehicle
Barristers were yesterday given the tools to bolt a corporate vehicle onto their chambers which can bid for work, instruct solicitors and also bring clerks and others into ownership roles. The Bar Council’s new business model, dubbed ProcureCo, raises the possibility of barristers competing with solicitors for work.
PI firms must grow or die, warns top lawyer
No claimant personal injury (PI) law firm will exist in five years’ time if it does not have 20-30 fee-earners, a leading PI practitioner predicted last week. Richard Langton, managing partner in the Birmingham office of Russell Jones & Walker, said this would enable firms to open from at least eight in the morning to eight in the evening, and perhaps on Saturdays too.
Lawyers warn of decimation at hands of big brands as Co-op pushes legal service
High street solicitors may soon become a thing of the past if steps are not taken to curb and regulate the predatory marketing of national organisations keen to move into the legal sector next year, the Lawyers Defence Group has warned. It spoke out in the wake of an announcement by the Co-operative Group that it intends to launch a nine-week campaign promoting its legal services to shoppers in its nationwide chain of 3,000 supermarkets.
Top firms outsourcing elsewhere in the UK just as much as to India
Top law firms are outsourcing as much to elsewhere within the UK as they are to India and South Africa, new research has found. Litigation support was the most popular service, followed by knowledge management, legal process and secretarial/typing work.
Scottish solicitors oppose ABSs in latest vote
Scottish solicitors have voted against the planned introduction of alternative business structures (ABSs), it was announced today. Law Society of Scotland members voted 3:2 that only solicitors should own law firms, while a compromise that solicitors should be in the majority of owners was defeated, despite support from the floor at today’s reconvened SGM.
Accountants “failing in solicitor duties” – an update
Just 11 accountants have blown the whistle on their solicitor clients over concerns about fraud, theft or other conduct that may render them unfit to hold client money, as required by the Solicitors Accounts Rules, it has emerged. Blowing the whistle became an obligation, rather than an encouragement, just over a year ago.
Rude awakening
As chair of the new Legal Services Consumer Panel, Dr Dianne Hayter challenges the profession’s orthodoxy with strong views on how the legal landscape should develop. Neil Rose finds that she also uses a different kind of language.
New ITMA chief highlights regulatory challenge
The new president of the Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys has highlighted the challenges of the legal profession’s new regulatory structure as a key challenge facing her as she takes up office. ITMA is one of the eight approved regulators under the Legal Services Act and it has combined its regulatory function with that of the Chartered Institute of Patent Agents.
ABSs and the Jackson report
With alternative business structures now 18 months away, Neil Rose looks at how the recommendations of the Jackson report could be overtaken in the new legal services environment. In particular, what might claims management companies, third-party funders and class action specialists do?
