Practice Management

A failure to pay debts – and the increasing willingness of creditors to pursue solicitors for their money – is the most common feature of law firms in financial difficulty, Solicitors Regulation Authority research has found.

Alternative business structures (ABSs) will create additional demand for legal services outsourcing (LSO) and could in time become LSO providers themselves, a new book has predicted.

City lawyers have ratcheted up their attempt to limit the scope of legislation aimed at tax abuse by LLPs, with strong submissions to the House of Lords and HM Revenue & Customs.

Harnessing the communications power of the digital revolution can go a long way towards filling the access to justice gap created by cuts in legal aid, according to a major report.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority is looking at whether to abolish all of the prescriptive requirements around continuing professional development (CPD) and leave it to solicitors and their firms to decide how best to ensure their continuing competence.

The legal profession is poised on the brink of an employment revolution that will unleash a “pent-up productivity” which will bring it into line with other industries, a report has claimed.

High-profile personal injury law firm Hampson Hughes has defied widespread concern about the use of inducements to attract clients by upping the amount it offers from £1,500 to £2,000.

QBE has taken over as the leading insurer of solicitors, figures released yesterday by the Solicitors Regulation Authority have revealed. Between QBE Insurance (Europe) Ltd and two Lloyd’s syndicates, the Australian-based insurer secured 18.2% of the premiums paid.

The effects of the planned changes to the taxation of LLPs will be “far harsher than originally expected” and could put a significant strain on finances come April, solicitors have been warned.

Partnerships are “very much the poor relation” in the way they are handled by HM Revenue & Customs and indeed regarded by government”, a major Treasury review has found, with many feeling that HMRC sees them “as if they were exclusively avoidance vehicles”.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has revealed that around 10 firms have failed to close after failing to secure professional indemnity insurance and are heading for intervention, as the fallout resulting from last year’s renewal season enters its final phase.

The Legal Ombudsman today appealed to solicitors’ bottom line to persuade them to take complaints more seriously, saying that law firms and other providers could increase their profits by up to 3% if they do.

What would you call a person who knows a couple of thousand local people and businesses that would make great clients for your firm and who are not? You probably call them ‘my accountant’, or maybe the chamber of commerce, or the local estate agents, the secondary school. All of these will have contacts with hundreds or thousands of people who could be clients for your firm and who are not – and they are local. People want advice delivered locally. Most firms could quadruple the size of their businesses, without having to gain new clients more than 30 minutes travel time from their offices. This is how.

There have been some angry reactions to the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s publication last Friday of the names of 136 law firms which did not secure professional indemnity insurance by 29 December.

Leading volume conveyancer Barnetts has today been broken into four after going into administration. However, no jobs are being lost at the Southport-based firm, whose senior partner, Richard Barnett, described the move as a “fantastic opportunity” for the firm.