Practice Management

Solicitors Regulation Authority proposals to exclude lender and other financial institution claims from the scope of compulsory professional indemnity insurance will be “massively damaging to the profession” and lead to more expensive and longer conveyancing transactions for the public, Law Society chief executive Des Hudson has warned.

Partners in law firms that receive external investment after October will alienate younger colleagues if they appear to be stripping the firm of value for future generations, a report has warned.

Leading personal injury law firm Fentons Solicitors LLP has replaced its practice management software with Proclaim from Legal Futures Associate Eclipse to help manage rapid growth.

A service that enables law firms to offer trade mark registrations under their own brand without lifting a finger has been launched for the first time in the latest twist on legal process outsourcing. Under the ‘white label’ trade mark registration service, all work is undertaken by intellectual property specialist solicitors Azrights in the background without the knowledge of clients.

In the second part of his examination of the regulatory issues arising out of outsourcing, Duncan Finlyson of Legal Futures Associate Lawyers Defence Group outlines the relevant provisions in the Solicitors Code of Conduct 2007.

In the first of a two-part article, Duncan Finlyson of Legal Futures Lawyers Defence Group investigates the reasons for law firms to outsource certain functions and the regulatory issues that they throw up.

Solicitors are facing “bumper” years of claims for professional negligence as recession-driven legal actions start to bite, a leading broker has warned. The latest High Court figures indicate that negligence claims against solicitors rose from 80 to 210 in 2009, which is more than any other type of professional indemnity claim, and Lockton has predicted that the figure will continue to rise.

Legal software specialist Pilgrim Systems has formed a partnership with law firm IT consultants Kestrel Business Solutions to help maintain service levels to clients during a period of growth.

Some of the UK’s leading legal brains – including Professor Richard Susskind and Legal Services Board chief executive Chris Kenny – are teaming up with six law schools in England, the US and China to launch a groundbreaking international legal education project in London this weekend. LawWithoutWalls claims to be the first global venture designed to tackle the problems facing legal education and practice by bridging law schools, students, legal and business professionals, and entrepreneurs.

Solicitors have had to cover £15m in unpaid premiums of law firms that have been in the assigned risks pool (ARP) during its first 10 years, it has emerged. Of that, £6.1m is for run-off cover for firms that closed without insurance, and the figures reveal that the Solicitors Regulation Authority has collected just £500,000 in run-off premiums since the ARP was set up in 2000.

Alternative ways of delivering legal services continue to grow with the launch of two web-based, fixed-fee Q&A services, and what is claimed to be the first Twitter “law firm”. The two websites – www.expert-answers.co.uk and www.questiontheexpert.com – both use panels of qualified lawyers to answer questions put by users, while @thelegaloracle is the brainchild of the founder of personal injury referral network Loyalty Law.

Three-quarters of lawyers who sought help with health problems last year complained of stress, support charity LawCare has reported, while warning that drug abuse in the profession is worse than its statistics indicate. LawCare opened 517 new case files in 2010, down from a record 549 in 2009, splitting 60/40 between women and men.

Stratford-upon-Avon law firm Lodders has upgraded its practice management system to SOS Connect, the flagship product of Legal Futures Associate Solicitors Own Software. Lodders has installed the system in a ‘big bang’ implementation across three offices and 120 users.

A spiralling number of partnership disputes is encouraging the development of specialist alternative dispute resolution, experts have said. It has led to the Association of Partnership Practitioners launching a Directory of Partnership Dispute Arbitrators and Mediators.

Experts at the Institute of Legal Finance & Management explain the impact of today’s VAT rise on billing by solicitors, barristers and other lawyers