Practice Management

The courts service is already seeing benefits from the early stages of the digital delivery of justice, it said yesterday as it outlined its plans for further rationalisation of the physical court estate. The proposals included the potential closure of eight courts, including Blackfriars Crown Court, which was meant to be one of venues for the flexible operating hours pilot.

There is a worrying “disconnect” between the factors that law firms consider most important in driving growth of their firms and the way their lawyers are paid, a report has found. The report found that firms were “telling their staff that client satisfaction and recovery rates are important, but will have no bearing on the staff’s remuneration”.

The Law Society is to launch a new ‘quality and standards in education’ committee, after a year in which its training arrangements have come under sustained pressure. It is also investigating whether to reintroduce student membership and has issued guidance on when law firms should tell trainees whether they have a job post admission.

The Law Society has been forced to withdraw from an exclusive deal to endorse a training partner for the qualified lawyers transfer scheme (QLTS) after facing a judicial review from another provider, in the latest major stumble by the body that represents solicitors.

The government is to ensure that leaseholders know how to sue their conveyancer where they may have been negligent over escalating ground rents, it has revealed. It is one of several new measures to cut out unfair and abusive practices within the leasehold system, announced just before Christmas.

Students from white backgrounds are almost twice as likely as those from black backgrounds to pass the legal practice course (LPC), new figures have revealed. They also revealed a massive performance gap between LPC institutions, with one provider achieving a pass rate of 100%, compared to 30% for the worst performer.

The leading unregulated provider of employment law services unfairly dismissed a senior employee, an employment tribunal has found. Peninsula, which describes itself as the UK’s “largest and leading” employment law firm, breached the employer’s implied duty of trust and confidence in imposing new terms and conditions.

Lawyers have experienced a worrying level of bullying and intimidation, according to a massive international study, while diversity policies have failed to help women achieve equality in legal practice. It also found significant discrimination existed against women in the well-paid commercial law field, slowing their advancement.

The Land Registry is to publish how many incomplete applications it receives from the top 500 conveyancing firms as part of its commitment to opening up its data. It sends out 5,000 requisitions every day to conveyancers for further information or action before their applications can be completed.

The Court of Appeal has rejected the arguments of a convicted VAT fraudster that her former solicitors pressured her to drop an appeal that included a claim that they represented her badly and helped land her in jail.

The Link App, the communications application for law firms and their clients created by former The Apprentice candidate Lauren Riley, has launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise £300,000 as it continues to establish itself. Sir Nigel Knowles has taken over as chairman of the company.

The High Court has struck out a negligence claim brought against a barrister peer for breaching an extended civil restraint order – only to then permit the claimant to issue a further claim form. Max Couper is seeking to sue both Lord Thomas of Gresford – the Liberal Democrats’ shadow attorney general – and Irwin Mitchell.

City law firm Clyde & Co has teamed up with computing students to undertake data analysis for clients, including predictions of the likelihood of disputes going to trial and potential litigation outcomes. Meanwhile, Bristol-based TLT has taken a share of a US artificial intelligence contracts review software supplier.

A firm of solicitors should have warned a client of the significant risk that a tax avoidance scheme would not withstand a challenge from HM Revenue & Customs, the Court of Appeal has ruled. The client ended up having to pay £11.3m to settle with HMRC and issued proceedings against his solicitors the same month.

Graduates from black and minority ethnic (BME) backgrounds are half as likely to obtain pupillages as their white peers, research for the Bar Standards Board has found. A second report found that the Bar was still viewed as “an elite, white, male-dominated profession with long-established traditions”.