Practice Management

The Supreme Court has ruled 5:2 in favour of not extending legal professional privilege to non-lawyers, even where they are giving legal advice that they are qualified to give. The court said it would make a well-established principle unclear and also that it was ultimately a matter for Parliament.

A judge has found in favour of a law firm in a trade mark infringement case against a firm of licensed conveyancers over its use of the word ‘Red’ when applied to legal services. London intellectual property specialists Redd Solicitors claimed that Northamptonshire conveyancers Red Legal Limited had infringed their trade marks.

A new marketing collective that is targeting consumer and commercial legal work – Simply Lawyers – is preparing for launch, Legal Futures can reveal. Meanwhile, Accidents Direct hopes to become the country’s leading claims management company by bringing more firms onto its panel.

An innovative US website that crowdsources advice to legal questions for free is on its way to the UK after it was acquired by online document service Rocket Lawyer, Legal Futures can reveal. LawPivot provides answers to any legal question from a network of more than 2,000 lawyers.

Many small and medium-sized law practices expect alternative business structures to affect them directly, with a third saying they could merge with another firm and one in five likely to seek external funding and/or bring in non-lawyer owners, a survey has found.

Law firms should introduce targets to increase the representation of women lawyers in partnership and senior roles, and turn talk of flexible working into reality, a major new report has recommended, with the Law Society president saying that if career progression was based on pure merit, some senior partners would have got nowhere near the top.

The cost of acquiring personal injury cases, irrespective of the referral fee ban, is around £700 – £200 more than the government is proposing for routine road traffic claims even before the legal work is factored in, according to new research.

Controversial rule changes that scrap the minimum salary for trainee solicitors and allow solicitors to refer clients to tied financial advisers were approved last month by the Legal Services Board. In both cases the LSB found that there was no reason to refuse the applications.

A free online business supplier community that allows law firms and other providers to pitch for service requirements posted by other UK businesses has been launched by NatWest and RBS. BizCrowd aims to take online the bank manager’s role in connecting businesses.

Stress continues to dominate calls to legal healthcare charity LawCare, and this in turn leads some lawyers to alcoholism later in their careers, its review of 2012 has said. More than two-thirds (69%) of the 378 case files opened last year related to stress.

Only a handful of the 15,000-plus members of the Bar have disclosed information such as whether they went to public or state schools, in a snub to the chairs of the Bar and the Bar Standards Board (BSB) who had personally requested it.

Just 8% of recent home-buyers would seek out a big brand such as the Co-op to handle their conveyancing the next time they move, a consumer survey has found as Conveyancing Association launched customer service ‘pledges’ that it says are a first for the industry.

The Court of Appeal has reversed a ruling that held a solicitors’ firm caught up in a mortgage fraud liable for the loss after being tricked by a bogus practice. The High Court had ruled that Davisons Solicitors in Birmingham had to repay £184,500 to the Nationwide Building Society.

Private client departments with fewer secretaries are more profitable, new research has suggested. The mini-survey found that firms with less than one secretary for every two fee-earners reported a gross profit margin of 52%, as against 44% for firms with a higher ratio.

Law firms are not maximising the potential in either their clients or their staff, according to new benchmarking research seen by Legal Futures. Firms reported very different results from cross-selling, for example,