Practice Management

Applications were up in the latest round of an accelerator programme for lawtech start-ups run by a London law firm, with smart contracts among technologies of particular interest, it has emerged. Six companies will win through to work with Mishcon de Reya from the “concept through to revenue-generating stage”.

An online legal advice website has created an artificial intelligence-backed robot that it claims has been trained to answer questions on consumer rights law in natural language using one of the world’s largest datasets.

Only 11% of small businesses consider solicitors to be good value for money, and most choose not to use them when faced by a legal problem, seeing them as a last resort, according to major new research. It also found that the annual cost of small businesses’ legal problems to the UK economy to be roughly £40bn.

National insurance law firm BLM has teamed up with three professors from the London School of Economics in a two-year research project to create models that predict the cost, length and outcome of litigation. AI will be an “important part” of the partnership, but it aims to bled technology with actuarial knowledge and ‘decision science’.

Law firms have taken advantage of a soft insurance market to secure 18-month professional indemnity insurance deals at a “very good” rate, a report has found. More firms were asking about additional cover to protect solicitors against defence costs in disciplinary proceedings, in the wake of the Leigh Day case.

The English lawyer behind a bid to provide legal backing to deals involving both the virtual world of blockchain and real world commerce, has forecast that in a decade most global trade will be governed by arbitration agreements coupled with smart contracts.

An accounts clerk at a west London law firm who faced false allegations of sexually harassing a fellow employee – who was the daughter of the owner – has won his claim of unfair constructive dismissal. After winning his claim first time around, he won it again on a reconsideration of the question of whether he had affirmed the firm’s breaches.

A City law firm partner who had to pay £215,000 to settle his debt to the bank of his former firm, which had gone bust, was not able to deduct it from his earnings at his new firm for tax purposes, the Court of Appeal has ruled.

A new breed of specialist artificial intelligence (AI) lawyer will emerge within 20 years, but governments should only legislate on the subject once technology companies have had time to develop their own ethical principles, according to Microsoft. By that time, virtually all lawyers will rely on AI to assist them with their practice, it said.

The time for just talking about new ways of doing things in the law is over as clients “turn their backs on the pricing and delivery models that law firms have traditionally sold them”, a leading banker has warned. He said a “palpable shift” in thinking and serious investment in new technologies and delivery methods were now strategic priorities.

An increase in the number of callers to mental health charity LawCare is a sign of “greater awareness”, its chief executive has said. Workplace stress was cited as the main reason for contacting to LawCare by 27% of callers, followed by depression (17%), disciplinary concerns (8%) and anxiety (7%).

A Nigerian-born former administrative assistant at leading national firm Shoosmiths has been awarded damages for harassment after another member of staff standing by her desk said that “struggling immigrants should go back to their country”. But her other claims of discrimination and victimisation were rejected.

The ex-managing partner of a well-known law firm has won the right to sue his former firm for £3.4m under whistleblowing law. Andrew Roberts claims that he was constructively dismissed by the other partners of Salisbury practice Wilsons.

A lead generation website and connected mobile app designed to put younger consumers of legal services in touch with solicitors between appointments by tapping directly into their electronic diaries, will launch later this year.

An employment tribunal has rejected claims of race and sex discrimination by a former equity partner of leading City firm Simmons & Simmons because the events complained of took place in Paris and so outside of its jurisdiction.