Practice Management

Law firms should ensure that compliance officers for legal practice are closely involved in information security policies, a study has advised after finding that a majority of firms contacted had already suffered data breaches.

The Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEx) has formed a strategic collaboration with the College of Law to offer legal employers training options for all staff, from school leavers to fully qualified lawyers.

Greater competition for business has led to a small fall in the amount of money solicitors paid for their basic professional indemnity cover this year, figures from the Solicitors Regulation Authority show. New entrants captured more than 10% of the market.

The company that says it was the first in the UK to provide free online legal advice for both businesses and consumers is to launch its first law firm panel for referrals – although it will not charge for them.

The final discussion paper produced by the Legal Education and Training Review “lacks rigour and is therefore unhelpful” in concluding that the current system is unfit for purpose, the Law Society has said. But it strongly backed creating alternative routes to qualification.

Nearly 60% of top 100 law firms view mergers and acquisitions as a leading growth opportunity in a challenging legal services market – with the prospect of alternative business structures starting to snap at their heels, according to a prestigious benchmarking survey.

An attempt to ‘crowd fund’ £1.5m for the launch of what is claimed to be the world’s first live online pay-as-you-go legal advice service will begin this week. Quegal will charge users 60p a minute to receive advice from junior solicitors and paralegals.

The importance of law firms marketing to their existing client base has come through strongly from major new Law Society research that shows repeat clients are by far solicitors’ biggest source of work.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council has been fined £120,000 after an in-house solicitor sent highly sensitive information about a child protection case to the wrong e-mail address, rather than the barrister for whom it was intended.

There is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to produce a “bold blueprint” for change in legal education and training, but “vested interests” are striving to water it down, the Legal Services Consumer Panel has cautioned.

Three-quarters of business law firms say that an online presence has been their single most effective tactic to generate new leads in the past year. The poll of 209 business-to-business law firms around the world found they are increasingly investing in their online activity.

It will be for personal injury solicitors to convince the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) that they are not paying referral fees once the ban comes into force, it emerged today as the SRA published its long-awaited consultation on how it will implement the ban.

An online NHS Direct for law, supported by 30 law centre-type operations in key areas around the country, should form the basis of a radical new approach to publicly funded legal services, according to a leading legal thinker.

A Southampton law firm that has set up a business club for entrepreneurs last night won the Law Society award for excellence in innovation. The society’s annual Excellence Awards also saw recognition for QualitySolicitors.

QualitySolicitors this week launches its public attack on ‘faceless’ legal advice provided by new entrants to the legal market and national law firms, with a series of posters across 1,000 billboard and poster sites.