Practice Management

Witnessing deeds by video link has moved a step closer after the government accepted a call to set up an industry working group to consider it, while agreeing the law already allows electronic signatures.

Female founders of legal start-ups are confronting sexism among investors, including having to answer demeaning questions like ‘have you frozen your eggs?’.

There is a “real profitability divide” between larger and smaller law firms although income is generally increasing across the board, new research has found.

Commercial law firms based in the UK are falling behind their global rivals in adopting new technology, including artificial intelligence and data analytics, a report has warned.

A High Court judge has strongly criticised Slater & Gordon for a “wholly unacceptable” failure to give him a crucial letter when applying for an urgent injunction in a police misconduct case.

A solicitor who sacrificed possible partnership at a magic circle law firm to have children has been awarded an extra £400,000 in her divorce settlement with an equity partner at the same firm.

The team behind the First 100 Years has launched its latest project, The Next 100 Years, dedicated to achieving equality for women in law over the next decade.

An employer acted reasonably in relying on legal advice that the restrictive covenants on a new employee were unlikely to be enforceable, even though they proved to be, the Court of Appeal has ruled.

Leading City law firm Kennedys has spun off its technology development into a separate business, dubbing its ‘Kennedys, without the lawyers’.

Law firms and other advisers are often organised so they only see a legal problem that needs to be resolved, rather than take a ‘whole person’ approach to clients, the head of a well-known legal charity has said.

A partnership with IBM is helping leading consumer law forum LegalBeagles develop a chatbot that will answer the types of questions that people are regularly posting on the site.

A pilot of fully video hearings in the civil courts is to be extended and turned from opt-in to opt-out so as to drive more cases through the system, the Civil Procedure Rule Committee has decided.

Smaller law firms are unable to pay the high salaries that top candidates for jobs are demanding and this is putting them under economic pressure, a survey of 4,000 practices has concluded.

An app to help small business owners diagnose and get guidance on their legal problems has gone live – with a consumer version set to launch later this year – in the wake of a huge research project.

Some 58% of women in the legal profession say they or women they work with have received inappropriate comments from male colleagues relating to their gender, new research has found.