Practice Management

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,

Fewer than half of solicitors in Scotland use the three main social media platforms for professional purposes, according to new research. The most popular social network tool was LinkedIn, with 24% of the solicitors polled using it on a daily or weekly basis.

A new national marketing network of solicitors specialising in personal injury claims will be launched in the New Year with funding to spend more than £3m a year on advertising as firms come to terms with the upcoming ban on referral fees. Meanwhile new ABS Thompsons hinted at possible alliances with trade unions.

The legal process outsourcing industry is currently worth $2.4bn worldwide and is set to expand into higher value, more complex work, according to research conducted by the London School of Economics.

Our regular round-up of important news nuggets includes the newest SRA-licensed ABS, an advice contract for the Co-op, a survey of top firms on how they are changing, a probe of SRA files to identify any racial discrimination, heavy fine for spam texters and much more.

Nearly seven out of ten people are attracted to the idea of finding legal services on the internet and a similar number of younger adults are likely to go to supermarket providers, according to a survey.

The Office of Fair Trading has written to five legal price comparison websites to urge them to ensure they are providing clear information to consumers, after a review suggested that some sites could do more to improve trust amongst the public.

Merger and acquisition talks are rife among law firms, although there is little evidence of many making it through to a deal, new research has suggested. According to the survey by NatWest, 62% of firms had received or made approaches in the past year.

QualitySolicitors (QS) has admitted its campaign of attack ads on ‘faceless’ legal advice may have been premature, but defended it on the grounds that the network’s solicitors wanted the message publicised.

A new high street franchise that aims to market member law firms to “lower” demographics in thousands of branches of independent food retailers working under brands like Costcutter, Nisa and Premier Stores went live yesterday.

America’s two big online legal document brands, both of which are about to launch in the UK, are set to clash in court after LegalZoom launched proceedings against Rocket Lawyer over claims in its marketing that various services are free.

The impact of non-lawyer investment into law firms came to the fore today as Liverpool personal injury practice Silverbeck Rymer announced plans to create 300 jobs over the next year and so more than double in size.