Practice Management

The Will-U-Wait service launched earlier this year by Thursfields LLP is a very public example of the type of innovation that will help law firms thrive in a post-Legal Services Act landscape. The service enables clients to have individually tailored wills produced within an hour of the end of their first appointment. It is a premium service designed to meet urgent needs or help those who do not have time for multiple trips to their solicitors.

Leading personal injury expert Chris Fry has chosen the Proclaim case management solution from Legal Futures Associate Eclipse for his new South Yorkshire practice, Unity Law.

Lawyers have warned the Legal Ombudsman (LeO) that some clients will end up unrepresented if he adopts a complaints process that involves ‘naming and shaming’. Fear of reputational damage would have a chilling effect on taking on clients perceived to be ‘risky’ and adversely impact on lawyers whose social conscience led them to offer help, they said.

The High Court has ordered a solicitor to hand over client files to a mortgage lender despite his argument that those parts of them relating to the borrowers were covered by legal professional privilege. The judge ruled that express agreements between borrower and lender in each case overrode the right to privilege and confidentiality.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) is set to launch a “thematic review” of legal process outsourcing next year, Legal Futures can reveal. The review would seek to identify whether there are any particular issues or risks that require changes to the current regulatory requirements or whether certain outsourcing arrangements need particular attention in the supervision process.

Pickering & Butters has selected SOS Connect from Legal Futures Associate Solicitors Own Software for integrated case and practice management.

Kent-based law firm Thomson Snell & Passmore has selected K-Cloud and Legal Futures Associate Pilgrim Systems to provide all of its business critical applications.

A former fixed-share partner at south-coast law firm Lester Aldridge has lost his appeal against a ruling that he was a partner and not an employee in the limited liability partnership and so unable to claim unfair dismissal.

Professional indemnity insurers are to provide guidance for solicitors on the way the risk they pose is assessed as part of a push to ensure there is no discrimination in the renewal process. Following a meeting called by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, the Association of British Insurers also agreed to work with its members to review their proposal forms and the underpinning criteria used to assess risk, and review and report on the equality and diversity work undertaken by their members.

A company that runs two law centres has become one of the first two organisations ever to be fined for data protection breaches, after personal details of 24,000 clients were lost when an unencrypted laptop was stolen. A4e, a ‘social purpose’ company that jointly manages the Hull and Leicester community legal advice centres, was fined £60,000 by the Information Commissioner.

City law firm Herbert Smith has eschewed offshore outsourcing to set up a document review operation in Belfast. The first firm to establish a UK base for this kind of work, Herbert Smith said it was seeking to take advantage of the “significantly lower case base” in Northern Ireland and the high-quality pool of legal talent there.

The solicitors’ training contract should be abolished and frontline regulators compelled to co-operate on standards of training for reserved activities, a legal think tank argues in a report published this week.

Solicitors innocently caught up in frauds on mortgage lenders can find themselves liable for the whole loss if they release funds before receiving documents needed to prove title, even if the lender is negligent.

Law firms are “markedly” worse at business development and client management than other professional services practices, research has found. The study also revealed that just 58% of lawyers who should be involved in business development at their firms actually are, far lower than other professionals.

Concerns over a worsening diversity picture at the Bar have prompted the Bar Standards Board to consider making aspects of its guidelines on diversity mandatory. The news came as research published by the Law Society showed that significant obstacles still face women and ethnic minorities in accessing the upper reaches of the solicitors’ profession.