Practice Management

It will take up to 10 years for the true effects of alternative business structures (ABSs) to be felt, Professor Richard Susskind said this week. He said the only certainty at the moment was that much of the £25bn legal market is “very inefficient”.

Putting “values and ethics” at the heart of legal services provision will be one of the key themes taken forward by the Legal Education and Training Review following a major symposium in Manchester, along with quality of legal services and paralegals.

Well-known business services provider Jordans Ltd is to set up an alternative business structure aimed at handling outsourced legal work for both companies and law firms, it has emerged.

A groundbreaking project that aims to encourage students to think about innovation in the post-alternative business structure world – and help them develop new ideas for delivering legal services – has been launched by Sheffield Hallam University.

The number of solicitors struck off in the year to March dropped by 43%, while the number of negligence claims against solicitors reaching the High Court has also fallen, a flurry of new figures have shown.

Law firms’ social media policies need to extend to issues such as who owns contacts and content developed by staff members through the use of networks like LinkedIn, while they should also be cautious about searching the social media activity of potential recruits, new guidance has advised.

Ten brokers and nine professional indemnity insurers have agreed to use the Law Society’s prototype standard application form. The eventual aim is to allow solicitors to fill out a single PII proposal form that will be accepted by all.

Wales will today make its pitch as a new onshore venue where City law firms can cut their costs by locating back-office operations. Cardiff recently became the UK’s first and only dedicated financial and professional services enterprise zone.

The Law Society is investigating whether to launch its own solicitor comparison website, Legal Futures can reveal. There is an internal debate going on as to whether this would enable comparison on price as well as other factors.

Most trainee solicitors think that the legal practice course has prepared them for legal practice, a new survey has shown. The results arguably run contrary to the sentiments coming out of the ongoing Legal Education and Training Review.

Three in four people have received an unsolicited text or phone call from a claims management company offering them the chance to claim compensation, even though almost all had no grounds to bring a claim, according to research.

The Legal Services Board has urged regulators and professional bodies to engage with comparison websites for the benefit of consumers, including providing access to their registers, Legal Futures can reveal.

Our regular round-up of news snippets features another acquisition by ABS-in-waiting Quindell Portfolio, a solicitor’s TV ad winning a Royal Television Society award, a firm donating referral fees to charity, and ABS compensation fund arrangements.

Many law firms have failed to ensure their websites can be read by mobile devices, while others have produced “horrendous” applications (apps) for smartphones in their rush to be seen at the cutting edge of technology, a report has claimed.

There has been a massive increase in people using Twitter to ask for recommendations of professional service providers in the last two years, with solicitors one of the most in demand, according to research conducted for Orange Business.