Practice Management

Six businesses – including a law firm – are battling for control of a new .law domain that is set to become available as the body that co-ordinates Internet addresses opens up the market radically. There is also competition for the generic top-level domains (gTLDs) .lawyer and .legal.

The impending ban on referral fees in personal injury could result in a “steep increase” in the number of financial failures amongst small law firms – but may not actually discourage spurious claims – the Solicitors Regulation Authority has warned.

The only winners in the online legal documents business are those supplying services to the likes of law firms, financial institutions and trade associations – rather than selling them directly to the end-user – new research has found. It warned that engineering online legal documents is not an end in itself.

There has been a surge in large law firms paying partners bonuses over recent years along with distinct shifts in the way they compensate partners more generally and away from lockstep, new research has revealed.

Our regular round-up includes strong backing for intellectual property ABSs, Eddie Ryan leaving Co-operative Legal Services, a new digital copyright licence for law firms, an “unacceptable” lack of transparency over PII commissions, and a warning that law firms are being targeted by online espionage.

The Internet revolution has “yet to reach legal services”, new Legal Services Board research has found, meaning consumers jump at the idea of an ‘official’ online resource to help them resolve their legal issues.

A “disruptive” services procurement platform that allows small and medium-sized businesses to put out tenders to an expert community and manage them, all via the cloud, is set to enter the legal market.

Fifteen solicitors have had sanctions imposed by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal – including indefinite suspensions – for failing to pay the premiums demanded while their firms were in the assigned risks pool, with 15 more still to face the tribunal.

The Legal Education and Training Review should lead to alternative routes to qualification through a modularised and work-based approach, the Law Society has said. It comes as Professor Stephen Mayson has expressed concern that the review is in danger of being subsumed by vested interests.

Lawyers’ legal education and training should be aimed at the specific activities they will be authorised to practise rather than at achieving a particular title, the Legal Services Consumer Panel has urged.

The minimum salary for trainee solicitors will be scrapped on 1 August 2014, the board of the SRA decided yesterday, saying it is not the job of a regulator to control wages. Firms will be required to pay the national minimum wage of £6.08 an hour.

The most profitable small and medium-sized legal practices generate almost £1m in fee income per equity partner, nearly three times that of the least profitable, new research has revealed. It also highlighted the significant impact that gearing has on profitability.

Consumers using online legal services should have access to proper redress, the Legal Ombudsman has suggested. Adam Sampson said he was not convinced there is a difference between a legal product and a legal service.

Work on increasing social mobility in the legal profession is losing ground amid concerns over the effectiveness of the many separate initiatives aimed at increasing diversity, the latest paper from the Legal Education and Training Review (LETR) has suggested.

Just eight personal injury brands dominate the web searches of potential clients, with national law firm Irwin Mitchell leading the way, new research has found. The report also found social media strategies “massively under-developed within the legal services sector”.