Practice Management

The vast majority of personal injury law firms appear to have renewed their indemnity insurance on acceptable terms despite the instability in the sector, according to a survey of nearly 500 law firms conducted last week.

Harris Cartier – a 26-lawyer niche litigation and corporate practice with offices in London and Slough – has become the first firm to be placed into administration following the failure to arrange professional indemnity insurance for 1 October.

Alternative business structure NewLaw Solicitors is to grow by 25% after receiving finance from the Welsh government to help it expand. The firm is to recruit 86 people in its Cardiff headquarters.

The Bar Standards Board has become the first frontline regulator to map out how it will take forward the Legal Education & Training Review (LETR). Earlier this week the BSB and Solicitors Regulation Authority were criticised for not collaborating on taking forward the LETR.

The regulators of solicitors and barristers have been accused of failing to collaborate closely enough on their responses to the Legal Education and Training Review, after they announced they would pursue independent strategies for ensuring competency.

A total of 185 law firms have applied to the Solicitors Regulation Authority for the extended indemnity period of insurance, having failed to secure cover by 1 October – although 10 have already secured a policy.

The next stage of QualitySolicitors’ latest advertising campaign to persuade the public to love lawyers went live yesterday with a series of television adverts. Meanwhile, Slater & Gordon launched the latest part of its TV campaign with an advert focused on employment law.

Leading claims management company First4lawyers yesterday launched a £10m year-long marketing campaign with a new television commercial featuring tennis player-turned-commentator Andrew Castle.

Predictions of a professional indemnity insurance apocalypse appear to have been well wide of the mark, with just 69 firms so far notifying the Solicitors Regulation Authority that they have triggered the new extended indemnity period.

Law firms are suffering from a “nationwide epidemic of missed opportunities” because of the way they deal with telephone enquiries, new mystery shopping research has claimed. In 97% of calls, the handler failed to ask if the caller wanted to go ahead or make an appointment.

The co-founder of PayPal has invested in a start-up that aims to help clients find lawyers and then collaborate with them through an online platform – and is targeting the UK in the next few months – Legal Futures can reveal.

The number of small and medium-sized law firms in financial distress has soared to nearly a quarter of the profession, while one in eight has gone out of business in the last year, according to new figures.

The country’s mortgage lenders have hit out at the Solicitors Regulation Authority for not being transparent in the way it runs its compensation fund, leading to a perception that lenders are being made to carry the can for solicitors’ wrongdoing.

Liverpool law firm Camps has launched a new consumer brand – Your Legal Friend – as part of its “multi-channel” response to the personal injury market. It said the launch follows research to ensure the brand reflects both what the company stands for and delivers what its customers most value.

Misleading funders, inflating work-in-progress valuations and shortages in client account are among the common features of financially unstable firms that are currently under investigation by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, it has emerged.