Practice Management

The names of 1,617 law firms and barristers who have been the subject of a formal decision by the Legal Ombudsman are now in the public domain. But there are positive signs for the legal profession in how few have recorded even five formal decisions.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority is holding firm against criticism over its position on unrated professional indemnity insurers after Latvian underwriter Balva – which covers 1,300 law firms – was prohibited from writing new UK business.

Barristers and chambers staff now have access to a nursery nears the Inns of Court in the first of what could be a national network of childcare facilities. The Bar Nursery has been launched five years after the idea was first mooted.

There is a widespread desire to move away from the hourly rate model, according to a survey of in-house lawyers that found them wanting their external law firms to share risk. Senior counsel at 80 international companies believe that law firms should provide ‘budget certainty’.

Brands are not just for big firms. Thayne Forbes argues that they can work for smaller practices as well, explaining how to create one, where the value lies, ensuring it appeals to your target market and the risks of adopting a marketing collective’s brand instead.

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has warned that having a complex tax avoidance scheme approved by a senior lawyer does not render it safe after a specialist tax QC who designed his own scheme saw it struck down.

Two-thirds of law firms saw their professional indemnity insurance premiums go down last year, with switching insurers the most common way of securing it, Law Society figures have revealed. The society has also warned that under-pressure small firms are risking their future by going with unrated providers.

More than four out of five of divorcees want family law services provided by fixed fees, according to research carried out by Co-operative Legal Services to launch a campaign against hourly rates in light of this week’s legal aid cuts.

More than half of those going through a divorce were priced out of the legal services they would have bought and felt they needed, new research has found, with nine out of ten people told by solicitors to take or leave pricing on an hourly rate.

A war of words has broken out between the Law Society of Scotland and Council of Mortgage Lenders over the former’s decision to ban joint representation of borrower and lender, subject to formal rule changes later this year.

The trend towards ‘unbundling’ legal services is gathering pace, with a Yorkshire law firm launching a ‘Pay as You Go’ service for family law clients who will no longer be eligible for legal aid after 1 April.

HMRC is set to scrutinise the status of law firm partners after measures announced in the Budget. The Treasury is to consult on removing the presumption of self-employment for LLP partners and on countering the “artificial allocation of profits to partners”.

The Law Society is to ask members of its Conveyancing Quality Scheme whether they would fund a dedicated advertising campaign, it has emerged. Chief executive Des Hudson raised the possibility at a meeting of the Conveyancing Association last week.

Forty-eight law firms have already signed up to a new business networking tool that helps solicitors capture referrals directly from other professional services and claims to cut out “costly panel managers”.

A new route into the legal profession is launched today in a bid to improve access and diversity in the law. The Level Four Higher Apprenticeship in Legal Services is designed to help firms recruit a new breed of talented paralegals who could in time become chartered legal executives.