Finance

A law firm revenue controller given a suspended jail sentence after diverting £32,000 in payments meant for suppliers to his own bank account has been banned from working in the profession.

The top 50 law firms had nearly £6bn of unpaid client invoices on their balance sheets last year and would be better prepared for another crisis like Covid if they reduced this, an analysis has argued.

An accountant who acted as a law firm’s part-time finance director through a company was a worker and not self-employed, even though he had another client, an employment tribunal has ruled.

Law firms have been urged to change their retainers now so they can charge clients for holding their money, given the “possibility, if not likelihood” of negative interest rates.

A property investor breached the terms of a freezing order by using company funds to pay outstanding fees to two London law firms, which repaid the money when they found out.

Many of the country’s largest law firms are unprepared for the rate at which they are burning through cash during the Covid-19 pandemic, a review of their accounts has revealed.

A Liverpool law firm has defeated the claim of a finance broker who sought a £100,000 fee for introducing it to a new loan provider, even though it eventually secured £2m in funding.

There is a “real profitability divide” between larger and smaller law firms although income is generally increasing across the board, new research has found.

Large law firms are damaging their profitability by poor scoping of work and under-pricing it, and are also set to penalise lawyers who offer clients overly large discounts, a survey has found.

Leading trade union law firm Thompsons is facing a strike over pay – and pickets lines at its offices across the country – organised by a trade union. It blames the squeeze in PI for not meeting the demands.

Sole practitioners have overtaken small firms with two to four partners in terms of profit per equity partner, a survey has found. Sole practitioners also led the way in fee income growth compared to larger firms.

Last year saw solid real-terms growth for mid-sized law firms, with median growth of 4.2% the result of increased fee income rather than simply more fee-earners, new figures have shown.

The number of insolvencies among solicitors’ firms reached a new high last year, Insolvency Service figures have shown, and a funder has warned that ‘loan stacking’ will only make things worse.

New guidance on delegated authority claims handling by lawyers may create additional VAT costs for law firms and lead to disputes with their insurance clients, accountants have warned.

Barristers would be “well advised” to make proper provision for tax liabilities given the “episodic” nature of their income, a tribunal has cautioned after upholding a fine against a QC hit by legal aid cuts.