Practice Management

After nine years heading up his own firm, then merging with another and finally in 2010 returning to practice as a sole trader, Peter Felton of Feltons Law switched to the outsourced accounting and legal software services of Bath-based Virtual Practices and has never looked back.

Our weekly round-up of other news takes in further expansion at Co-operative Legal Services, two innovations on the paralegal front, “virtual” firms piloting the SRA’s relationship management, and a tricky decision for LSB chairman David Edmonds

A temporary extension of cover should replace the pooled liability insurers have for struggling law firms, the Law Society has proposed. The extension of existing cover should be for a minimum of three months and its cost based on the current premium.

Solicitors have no need to investigate an elderly person’s capacity to contract without good reason and any such duty on them would be “insulting and unnecessary”, a High Court judge has said. Mrs Justice Sharp said the claimant had failed to establish that a lack of capacity “would have been evident to a reasonably competent solicitor”.

Solicitors in private practice undertook pro bono work in 2010 estimated at £475m, a rise of 19% on the year before, Law Society research has found. The figure represents 2.3% of the total gross fee income for private practice last year.

Law firms facing a cash flow crunch are sharply increasing their borrowing to meet tax liabilities, a lender to the legal profession has reported. Syscap says loans sought by firms have almost doubled compared to this time last year, as they struggle to meet today’s tax payments deadline.

Scotland’s larger law firms saw a rise in profits last year despite a 11% dip across the profession as a whole, research has found. The Law Society of Scotland’s survey showed that average profits per equity partner fell from £72,000 in 2009 to £64,000 last year. It is the second consecutive drop, from a high in 2008 of £104,000.

Three magic circle law firms are among the first to back an online initiative aimed at helping underprivileged youngsters break into the professions. Allen & Overy, Slaughter and May and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer have signed up to accessprofessions.com, a charity website which connects students aged between 13 and 21 with career-enhancing opportunities.

The Legal Ombudsman (LeO) has passed a complaint to the Criminal Cases Review Commission after a solicitor and a barrister’s errors potentially led to a man’s conviction for theft, in one of 365 cases that the service has informally resolved so far, it has emerged.

The public believes that legal aid solicitors are not as good as other solicitors, research undertaken for the Law Society has found. Focus groups held in London and Birmingham either side of Christmas also revealed that the public think legal aid solicitors are paid private practice rates.

It is not champertous for a solicitor to indemnify his client against paying the other side’s costs in the event of not finding insurance, the Court of Appeal ruled yesterday. It is thought that law firms may find themselves offering such arrangements more frequently in a post-Jackson/legal aid reform world so as to secure work.

Rules governing law firms’ ability to acquire the case loads of failing firms should both be relaxed and made more certain for the benefit of the profession and clients, insolvency and legal experts have argued.

The College of Law is to enter the undergraduate degree market for the first time by launching a two-year LL.B that it says will prepare students for legal practice. Students will be able to choose a degree that focuses on legal issues for individuals or one aimed at business law.

The obligation on barristers to notify clients of their right to complain to the Legal Ombudsman is more a marketing opportunity than a burden, the Legal Services Board has said. Meanwhile, the LSB reaffirmed that its policy on providing complaints information at the time of engagement will stand, despite a number of concerns raised by the Bar Standards Board.

Legal software supplier Eclipse Legal Systems has helped a Midlands firm of debt recovery solicitors to become the first business to exploit a new e-mail claims gateway opened by the County Court Bulk Centre in Northampton.