Report calls for ethics to be put at the heart of law degrees
The study of ethics should become a core element of the law degree, a report commissioned by the Law Society has recommended. The aim should be “to stimulate students to reflect on the nature of legal ethics, to equip students to behave ethically and to enable them to play an active role in the formation of professional ethics”.
MoJ set to force through client account interest plan whatever the impact
The government will push ahead with plans to take client account interest and apply it to the legal aid fund irrespective of the possible impact on clients and solicitors, an equalities impact assessment indicates.
Float like a butterfly?
The latest in our series of extracts from Climate Change, a report on the impact of the Legal Services Act published by accountants Baker Tilly, considers what kinds of law firms might float and the impact it could have on the practice and staff
The legal salesforce
Everyone in a law firm should be involved in sales and business development, says Kate Fleming of HuthwaiteFleming, and she explains how those who see themselves solely as service providers can help create value for clients
LSB to take on £110,000 cost of supervising immigration advisers
The Legal Services Board is expected take over responsibility for overseeing the regulation of immigration advisers by the legal professional bodies from the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC), starting in April 2011.
Government targets client account interest as it outlines £400m legal aid cuts
Solicitors could be struck off for failing to pay the interest they have made on client accounts to the government, under proposals released today. The interest would be used to bolster the legal aid fund after the Ministry of Justice today unveiled a package to cut as much as £440m from the legal aid budget. The Jackson reforms will be implemnted but with possible “refinements”.
Minister “interested in aptitude tests” as survey reveals lawyers’ public school bias
Universities minister David Willetts has expressed interest in aptitude testing as a way to address “inequities in earlier educational experience” for those looking to enter the professions, it has emerged. The news comes as a survey released today shows that having a public school education makes it seven times more likely you will become a legal professional than if you are state-educated.
Focus on assigned risks pool forces SRA to cut down other monitoring visits
The focus on law firms in the assigned risks pool has led to a significant fall in the number of other monitoring visits conducted by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), Legal Futures can report. The SRA says the move is an example of its shift towards risk-based regulation.
Consumers welcome quality assurance for advocates but say scheme has big failings
Mandatory quality assurance for criminal advocates is welcome but the scheme currently proposed by the legal profession falls short in several significant ways, the Legal Services Consumer Panel said today. Among the problems are a failure to consider consumer needs, weaker standards than had been consulted on, and allowing advocates to choose which cases they are assessed on.
Inexorable growth of solicitors’ profession as number on roll tops 150,000
The number of solicitors has grown by nearly 50%, and the number of firms by a third, in the past decade, Legal Futures research has discovered. According to SRA figures, for the first time the number of solicitors on the roll has topped 150,000 (it is now 153,971), and the number of practising solicitors has gone over 120,000 (120,917).
