Practice Management

A leading academic has strongly criticised the pilot test of the first stage of the Solicitors Qualifying Exam, saying it “obscures as much as it reveals” and did not meet “basic reporting standards”.

A trainee who complained of “a perceived lack of training” a few weeks after starting work at a small Norfolk law firm was not a whistleblower, an employment tribunal has ruled.

The High Court has struck out a claim for professional negligence, breach of contract and fiduciary duty made against a central London law firm which was based on “incomprehensible pleadings”.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority is considering whether to abandon the skills element of the first stage of the Solicitors Qualifying Exam, meaning it would consist entirely of multiple-choice questions.

A third of consumers are now accessing legal services online while telephone-based services are declining, new research has found. However, the proportion shopping around is still relatively low.

The innovation division of City law firm Ashurst has been appointed as technical adviser to the Legal Access Challenge, which aims to support and accelerate ideas to use technology to improve access to justice. The challenge is the centrepiece of… Read More

MPs have backed a government amendment that would limit the role of the Lord Chief Justice in approving requests to make new rules for the proposed online court.

An artificial intelligence start-up whose contract-writing assistant draws on a law firm’s own body of data and teaches itself without the need for training by lawyers, has received a further £1.2m in seed funding.

A trainee solicitor fired by listed law firm DWF for sharing confidential client information with a friend has failed in her unfair dismissal claim before an employment tribunal.

The government has pledged to change the law to ensure that employees signing non-disclosure agreements receive independent legal advice, and work with the SRA on updated guidance.

MPs have urged the government to learn the lessons of previous major IT projects and move cautiously with the development on online courts.

Law students on Manchester University’s first ever legal tech and access to justice course have designed an app to enable clients of its legal advice centre to find help when the centre is closed.

A tribunal was entitled to allow a law firm facing a discrimination claim from a former solicitor to have its say on whether an ex-colleagues should be ordered to give evidence, having signed an NDA.

The impersonation of lawyers to commit advance fee frauds has been added to the list of large-scale cyber-attacks from which the National Cyber Security Centre is trying to protect the public.

A pregnant paralegal wrongly accused of benefit fraud by a leading criminal law solicitor who sits on the Law Society council was the victim of pregnancy and maternity discrimination, a tribunal has ruled.