Practice Management

Almost a quarter of law firms in the assigned risks pool had already decided to close a week before the renewal deadline, while the Solicitors Regulation Authority has flagged up the “serious risk” of other firms practising without insurance.

QualitySolicitors is generating nearly 100,000 leads per month for its member firms, pioneering research into find-a-solicitor type services has revealed, while around a fifth of such businesses have disappeared since 2010.

The lawyer behind a new outsourcing venture that recruits trainee solicitors and then seconds them to law firms and in-house legal departments to do their training contracts has been defending the model from a volley of instant criticism.

Around half of Europe’s 1.4m legal professionals should receive training in European law and other member states’ legal systems by 2020, the European Commission has said. It also wants all lawyers to have at least one week’s training in EU law during their careers.

The relationship between large law firms and general counsel is likely to evolve in three phases, with the “endgame” around five years away, Professor Richard Susskind has predicted. He also expects the large accountancy firms to return to the arena.

Legal publishing giant LexisNexis has become the latest entrant to the automated document assembly market with the launch of LexisSmart. It will next month be linked up to the company’s LawyerLocator referral service so that customers can seek a lawyer review of documents.

Clients view fixed fees and online access to the progress of their case – but not brand names – as key elements of legal services they would buy, according to unique new research, while law firms are waiting for competitors to close under pressure from ABSs and legal aid.

The spiralling costs of legal services is prompting some leading general counsel to consider a “production line” approach to handling legal work, with more companies looking to go offshore or in-house, according to new research from an Oxford professor.

The Law Society could encourage firms to undertake annual pay audits as a way to combat inequality in the solicitors’ profession, we can reveal. It comes as Chancery Lane prepares to publish a flexible working protocol to help law firms embrace the concept.

The number of incorporated law firms has risen sharply in the past year, with more than a fifth of legal practices now limited companies. According to Solicitors Regulation Authority figures, 2,400 of the 10,973 law firms as of July were incorporated companies, compared to 1,898 a year before – a rise of 26%.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has welcomed the suspension of a solicitor who failed to pay his assigned risks pool premium as it vowed to step up enforcement efforts against other such firms with the end of the indemnity year looming.

Smaller law firms are set to have more choice for the professional indemnity insurance this year after Legal & Professional Insurance entered into an agreement with broker Marsh to target practices with two and three partners.

Strong law firms are getting stronger while the weak are getting weaker as traditional sources of legal work dry up, a new survey seen exclusively by Legal Futures has concluded. The National Solicitors Selling Survey also found that more than half of firms surveyed saw ABSs as a threat.

A London barrister has launched an online referral service that passes instructions to public access barristers as well as solicitors. Karen Taylor, head of Themis Chambers, runs Find A Legal Specialist, which filters the needs of potential clients – including the complexity of the case – through a series of questions.

The largest provider of professional indemnity insurance to solicitors has announced that it will not be seeking any new business this year because of the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s failure to abolish the assigned risks pool immediately.