Practice Management

The Prime Minister today attacked lawyers for helping to create a compensation culture and promised to “curtail the promotion activities” of claims management companies. Among the other solutions which the government is to investigate following the Young review is a road traffic-style claims process for all low-value personal injury claims, including clinical negligence, while the Jackson report has received strong support too.

Regulators should consider making diversity training mandatory for senior partners and line managers in law firms, say academics after research uncovered a complex web of barriers between minorities and women, and the upper reaches of the legal profession. The findings will be backed up by a forthcoming study into pay disparity by the Law Society that has uncovered “a kind of structural inequality”.

The new Legal Ombudsman (LeO) service is set to turn away the rash of complaints about the way certain law firms have been pursuing alleged filesharers, it has emerged. However, it is instead referring them on to the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

Legal Futures Associate Pilgrim Systems marked the 10th of the 10th of the 10th by unveiling LawSoft 10, the new release of its flagship practice management system, LawSoft. The new release features an interface refresh plus numerous enhancements and benefits for users.

Dorset firm Blanchards Bailey LLP is looking to the future with an investment in SOS Connect from Legal Futures Associate Solicitors Own Software for integrated case and practice management.

Legal Futures Associate Pilgrim Systems has been shortlisted for three awards at TheKnowList Awards 2011 – account manager of the year, best new product of the year and the service excellence award.

Some 37 law firms in the assigned risks pool have closed since August, with a further 10 in the process of shutting their doors, the Solicitors Regulation Authority reported today. The firms have come to the end of the two years they were allowed to be in the pool.

The Legal Ombudsman (LeO) received 497 calls on its first day, with the first complaints about a solicitor who missed a court date after going on holiday and not telling his client. Many of the complaints were rejected for various reasons, such as being out of time, but 22 investigations were opened on the first day, and 14 are awaiting allocation.

The Legal Services Consumer Panel has had to put on ice plans to develop best practice standards for legal comparison websites, Legal Futures has learned. The work formed part of the panel’s 2010-11 workplan, published in March, but has been shelved because the panel has since been asked by the Legal Services Board to investigate will-writing regulation.

Expanding west London practice Prince Evans has selected the Proclaim software solution from Legal Futures Associate Eclipse for a firm-wide rollout. The Proclaim Case and Matter Management solution will be rolled out in three phases, replacing a number of existing systems.

The anticipated deluge of law firms entering the assigned risks pool has not materialised, but the numbers are still large, Legal Futures can reveal. But they will fall over the next month as firms can backdate their insurance if they find it by the end of October.

Indian legal process outsourcers see “a fat, complacent and profitable market place” in England and Wales “and they want a piece of it”, solicitors were warned last week. Mark Jones, former managing partner of Addleshaw Goddard, described legal process outsourcing as “a game changer for all of us” – 25% of Slaughter and May’s work is outsourceable, as is 50% of his own firm’s and maybe 100% for firms outside the top 50.

Moving your IT into the Cloud is a sensible way to go if firms want to work faster and smarter, but it needs to be done carefully. Chris Cann outlines his experience of doing it at Shropshire firm Martin-Kaye.

Too many lawyers have lost touch with what clients are really looking for and need to do more to create value for their clients, legal strategy expert Stephen Mayson has claimed. He also argued that major law firms need to rethink their cost base as “stripping out cost, based on the traditional ways of working, has gone about as far as it can”.

Barristers need some carve-outs from the requirements to tell clients about their complaints procedure, the Legal Services Board is to be told. The Bar Standards Board suggests that the drafters did not understand the realities of barristers’ practice.