Practice Management

Fast-growing Birmingham-based Shakespeare Putsman has selected LawSoft as a unified platform for its three-way merger with Stratford upon Avon firm Needham & James and Nottingham’s Berryman. The merger catapults the practice firmly into the national top 80 with around 450 staff.

Legal process outsourcing has taken a further step forward in England and Wales with a trio of announcements – two of which are aimed at the personal injury (PI) market. Both PI initiatives are particularly aimed at helping insurers and brokers handle “low value, low treatment” claims before they progress into a legal process.

In the first of a two-part interview to mark publication of the updated edition of his book, The End of Lawyers?, Professor Richard Susskind tells Legal Futures Editor Neil Rose how the recession and the growth of legal process outsourcing are changing lawyers’ attitudes to change.

Law firms that fail to embrace “legal process management” will quickly lose out to new competitors, such as accounting firms, legal publishers and businesses fuelled by external investment, Professor Richard Susskind has warned. The legal IT and strategy guru has also criticised the approach of many large firms to making cuts during the recession.

Several new appointments at Legal Futures Associate Pilgrim Systems reflect the company’s solid expansion, fuelled by a raft of new business wins and continued growth from their existing client base.

Cheshire law firm Abney Garsden McDonald has been shortlisted for a major award in recognition of its development of a case management system in the field of child abuse claims.

Legal Futures Associate Solicitors Own Software has been on a recruitment drive following an increase in business due to the popularity of SOS Connect for integrated case and practice management among mid-tier firms.

Lawyers will have a maximum of eight weeks to resolve complaints before the Legal Ombudsman will agree to investigate, the new service has confirmed, but it may ask them why they did not deal with them even quicker.

The Council of Mortgage Lenders is investigating the case for making title insurance compulsory for all conveyancing transactions, it has emerged, as a Law Society committee said it should be looked at as a way to reduce solicitors’ professional indemnity insurance premiums.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has been forced “under duress” to approve a rule change under which solicitors will have to inform existing clients of their right to complain to the Legal Ombudsman, despite efforts to persuade the Legal Services Board to change its position.

Lees Solicitors LLP is a Wirral-based, multi-disciplinary practice employing over 100 staff at offices in Birkenhead, Heswall, and West Kirby. The practice recently chose the Proclaim Practice Management system from Legal Futures Associate Eclipse as a firm-wide replacement to its incumbent software. Eleni Kinch, professional support principal at Lees, discusses the practice, its reasons for IT investment and its strategy for the future.

The Law Society is considering introducing an aptitude test for entry onto the legal practice course that will reduce student numbers, Legal Futures can reveal. Other initiatives being examined are a “warts and all” guide to qualification as a solicitor and incentives for firms to provide training contracts.

Birmingham-based HBJ Gateley Wareing has moved quickly to integrate its new Manchester operation into its network by migrating the office to its LawSoft practice management system by the end of September.

The top law firms are looking to bulk up their business development capacity as they face a major reduction in their fees, a survey has claimed. With partners in the top 10 firms seeing their average billable fees fall by £875,000 last year, recruitment consultancy Ambition says firms have responded by hiring marketing staff.

West Midlands law firm Forum Law is planning to give legal advice over the Internet after buying Capita Assistance’s legal helpline business. Called Legal Assistance Direct (LAD), the service already had contracts to provide legal advice to over five million client customers of various institutions. It currently receives around 35-40,000 calls a year.