Practice Management

A City solicitor who agreed to lower wages during lockdown has failed in his claim for full pay for his last month after handing in his notice.

Lawyers have identified reduced client budgets for legal work as the biggest threat to the profession from the pandemic in a new report.

The government’s £1bn court reforms have had a “disappointingly slow” start in collecting the information required to ensure the justice system is fair, according to researchers.

General counsel have become so insistent in demanding that law firms give them Black candidates for secondments and legal work that they are in danger of draining them of Black talent.

A particularly unwelcome issue for judges hearing cases remotely is that some of the most disturbing elements of serious family cases are being heard at home, a High Court judge has reported.

The family court system has adapted so well to remote working that some courts do not have a backlog of cases, the president of the Family Division said yesterday.

Solicitors are concerned that some new legal technology they buy does not take into account their professional rules and ethical duties because lawtech firms are “not speaking the same language”.

Bullying, discrimination and harassment at the Bar is perceived to be tolerated “to a certain extent” due to its “adversarial, male-dominated culture and competitive nature”, new research has found.

A solicitor working in-house at a leading insurer has won his claim for unfair dismissal. But had it followed the correct procedure, the dismissal would likely have been justified, the tribunal said.

Flexible resourcing pioneer Obelisk Support has launched a new paralegal service for law firms and in-house teams, with plans to add 500 full-time paralegals and junior lawyers to its talent pool.

A niche law firm which advises on employee share ownership and executive pay has become the latest to convert to an employee ownership trust.

Bonuses for managers could be made contingent on improvements in social mobility and the representation of minority ethnic people in law firms, it was suggested yesterday.

Positive action – such as giving female barristers preferential access to briefs after returning to chambers from career breaks – can help address diversity problems, the Bar Council says.

One of the oldest legal advice centres in the country has been given a boost by taking advantage of the new path to qualifying as a solicitor by employing six apprentices.

Leeds is poised to become a lawtech innovation powerhouse, according to a report saying there is competition building for established practices among non-traditional providers of legal services.