Are ABSs coming to America? They may be in North Carolina
The first crack in the wall of American opposition to non-lawyer ownership of law firms has come in a bill laid before the North Carolina Senate. The bill would allow minority (up to 49%) non-lawyer ownership of legal practices.
Government under fire for closing LSB, ombudsman and consumer panel websites
The Cabinet Office has refused to confirm whether it is going ahead with shutting down the websites of the Legal Services Board, Legal Ombudsman and Legal Services Consumer Panel after a strong attack in the House of Lords last night that claimed it threatens the independence of the legal profession.
Revealed: solicitors set for poll in last-ditch bid to derail SRA as ABS regulator
Sole practitioners are set to requisition a special general meeting of the Law Society and a postal vote of all solicitors in a bid to overturn Chancery Lane’s support for alternative business structures (ABSs) and wreck the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s application to become an ABS regulator, Legal Futures can reveal.
The lawyer will see you now: is “GP Law” the future for the high street?
The future for high street lawyers is to evolve into a relationship manager who can direct clients to find the right advice from a range of legal and non-legal sources, the managing director of LexisNexis in the UK has said.
60% of people would buy legal advice from brands like Barclays, AA, Co-op and Virgin
Three in five consumers would consider buying legal services from a range of consumer brands, a major piece of market research from YouGov has revealed. The work also found low recognition of any current legal brands, while a third of consumers said they would be attracted by online legal services.
News in brief: larger firms cool on ABS, LPO boost, women suffer on pay and more
Our latest round-up of other news of interest to Legal Futures readers includes a survey of among larger firms about ABS intentions, a lay majority on the BSB, women lawyers convinced male colleagues are paid more, good news for a big LPO provider and much more.
Outsource some of your legal work to Northern Ireland, mid-sized firms urged
Mid-sized law firms in England and Wales should consider the opportunities presented by outsourcing parts of their work to Northern Ireland, it was claimed last week. The province is not just an option for law firms opening a captive to do their own work or for legal process outsourcing companies to set up operations
Solicitors repay £10m to miners as compensation scandal nears end
Solicitors have repaid nearly £10m to miners who had sums wrongly deducted from their damages, Legal Futures can reveal. The Legal Complaints Service has now closed the last complaint arising from the miners compensation scandal ahead of its formal shut-down this month.
Strong public opposition to Jackson reforms, poll reveals
There is widespread public opposition to the government’s civil funding reforms, according to a survey seen exclusively by Legal Futures. The survey of more than 2,000 people by pollster Populus found that four in five (82%) people think that the current ‘no win, no fee’ system is fair.
SRA: impact of ABSs on small firms may not be as bad as feared
Alternative business structures (ABSs) “may not be as big a threat” to small firms as some fear, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has suggested. A draft impact assessment also argued that ABSs could help equality and diversity in the legal profession by breaking the traditional partnership model that has held it back.
