Practice Management

The risk of as many as 1,000 law firms having to shut down because they cannot find professional indemnity insurance means it is time to narrow the scope of the cover solicitors are required to have, a leading adviser has argued.

The Advertising Standards Authority has rejected complaints that positive online reviews for a law firm were fake and that the website hosting them would not accept negative reviews. This was the first complaint of its kind involving a law firm.

Professional indemnity insurance brokers have again had to calm fears just three weeks before the renewals deadline, as the unrated insurer Berliner appeared “uncertain” it could cover any solicitors’ risk this year.

A third of law firms are under financial pressure and may require refinancing or an injection of capital, new research has found. Financial health specialist Company Watch said that 898 of the 2,600 firms it investigated were in trouble.

With just a month to go before solicitors have to renew their professional indemnity insurance (PII), the Law Society has today launched its much-anticipated offering for firms of one to four partners that cuts out brokers.

Riverview Law, the fixed-priced commercial law business, is to double in size by creating up to 100 new posts over the next year, it announced today. The firm said the appointments are a result of “recent contract wins with a number of FTSE 100 businesses”.

It’s the hottest summer since the end of the Ice Age and the cold dark misery of winter seems a long way off. Try, if you can, to cast you mind forward to January 2014. A depressing month at any time, we can rely on the SRA to make January just that little bit less endurable – last January it was the COLP and COFA regime, next year it’s diversity monitoring.

There a number of very important factors to consider before committing to the renewal of your firm’s professional indemnity insurance (PII). One of the most important considerations is the actual choice of insurer providing the cover for the firm’s compulsory level of insurance.

An online legal directory aiming to aggregate the publicly available data about lawyers – including complaints information from the Legal Ombudsman – has launched with the outline details of nearly 13,000 lawyers.

Too many partners are unaware of their firm’s financial situation and the personal implications of the business going under, it has been claimed. Firms are in serious danger of going out of business because they do not have sufficient cash to meet their running costs.

A lack of growth is one of the factors behind the increasing trend towards mergers and acquisitions amongst small and medium-sized law firms, new research has suggested. Firms are also continuing to ignore the importance of lock-up to their cash flow, it said.

The government’s proposed tax reforms for limited liability partnerships (LLPs) are “haphazard”, “incoherent”, backward looking, and would introduce a “bizarre distinction” between business entities, according to the Law Society.

Professional indemnity insurers are starting to shape the UK legal sector as they exert their influence during law firm mergers and acquisitions, experts have warned. Their attitude towards a firm’s target is becoming a significant influence on who buys whom – and who doesn’t.

Some of the country’s biggest law firms are moving closer to establishing stand-alone human rights policies, it has emerged. Clifford Chance, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Linklaters and Herbert Smith Freehills are among those working towards creating policies.

An internet marketing specialist has launched a new map directory for public access barristers. Nick Draycott, director of GoDirect2Barristers.com, has adapted online mapping technology to produce a site which he argues offers improved direct access to the Bar.