Practice Management

New entrants to the legal services market after October could have a significant advantage because they arrive with a fresh approach to IT, according to a leading commentator. Charles Christian said IT is at a “tipping point” where technology currently used by law firms is about to be superceded.

Solicitors dispensing legal advice on a fixed-fee retainer should take care to clarify the terms and ensure the service they provide is the same as if it were paid for by the hour, following a High Court ruling.

Smaller law firms have halted the decline in fee income, while partner profits rose significantly last year, Law Society research has found. They saw an average increase of 0.2% in practice fee income in 2010, following a reduction of 6.5% the previous year.

A former Court of Appeal judge and the one-time senior partner of City law firm Simmons & Simmons have been appointed joint chairs of a new consultation panel to advise on the fundamental education and training review – now known as “Review 2020″.

Legal Futures Associate Solicitors Own Software is to assist Harrison Clark Solicitors achieve significant improvements in efficiency and the adoption of practice-wide, standard business processes with SOS Connect.

Plans to clarify the ethics of outsourcing work to lawyers and non-lawyers, and the circumstances in which outsourcing would be wrong, are to be put to the American Bar Association (ABA). The “initial draft proposals” go further than an initial draft published last year.

Gus Sellitto, a director at legal PR specialists and Legal Futures Associate Byfield Consultancy, shares his top 10 tips on dealing with broadcast interviews

Personal injury and clinical negligence law firms facing competition from new entrants to the legal market need to change the way they market themselves, specialist legal outsourcing provider Collaboras warned this week.

City law firm Taylor Wessing has launched a division offering pioneering technology to handle data mining, contract management and due diligence as a “value-added” alternative to legal process outsourcing.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has announced the first research into continuing professional development in the legal profession for a quarter of a century. As first reported by Legal Futures in February, it has appointed Professor Andrew Boon of Westminster University to conduct the research.

Customer experience will largely define the success of legal providers in the post Legal Services Act world, according to a survey of delegates at last week’s Legal Futures Conference. Understading the client is vital but doing it will be difficult for some firms, the survey found.

Our regular round-up of snippets of news that you need to know takes in the Legal Ombudsman, conveyancing, financial difficulties for law firms, a shortfall of LPC graduates, the first divorce app, new members for LawNet, an LPO survey, the new Law Society deputy vice-president, and Expert Answers’ affiliate programme.

Proposals from the “timid” Solicitors Regulation Authority to reform the market for professional indemnity insurance are inadequate and will only worsen already fears for the future of the market, the Association of British Insurers has warned. However, the SRA’s blueprint has been welcomed by the Law Society and the Council of Mortgage Lenders.

A collaboration between Yourlegalrights.co.uk and top legal IT company Epoq Legal has set a benchmark in the delivery of online legal services and demonstrates the benefits of offering online legal services from both the consumer and supplier perspectives.

Too many lawyers believe they are “somehow immune” from the effects of technology that are profoundly impacting the rest of society, Professor Richard Susskind has warned. He also highlighted how the profession has embraced legal process outsourcing.