Practice Management
Relate puts pioneering online divorce project on hold
A project to create the first online dispute resolution system for divorcing and separating couples in the UK has been put on hold, Legal Futures has been told. Relate, the country’s largest provider of relationship support, received no government funding for the project, and instead relied on private backers, including Google.
UK first as Ulster University launches legal innovation centre
Ulster University launched the UK’s first legal innovation centre last night, bringing together its law school, school of computing and intelligent systems, and global law firms Allen & Overy and Baker McKenzie. It aims to operate at the intersection between legal process innovation, technology and access to justice.
Law firm insurer fails in High Court bid to recover property fraud losses from solicitor
A highly experienced solicitor who breached the Money Laundering Regulations 2007 in a property transaction that led to a £500,000 fraud did not act dishonestly, the High Court has ruled. As a result, it dismissed a subrogated claim brought by the insurers of London law firm Pemberton Greenish to make her cover what they had to pay out.
Two law firms ‘named and shamed’ over minimum wage breaches
Two law firms have found themselves ‘named and shamed’ in the government’s latest list of businesses that failed to pay workers the national minimum wage – although for one of them it amounted to an underpayment of 50p a week.
Start-up uses AI to make contracts “easy for consumers to understand”
A service that aims to use artificial intelligence to make legal contracts readily understandable by consumers is the latest of our lawtech start-up profiles. We investigate six-month-old Nift, which is already employed by some big-name companies.
Computer says ‘guilty’ – online convictions set to become reality
Defendants will soon be able to plead guilty, be convicted and pay a penalty immediately and entirely online for certain offences, the Ministry of Justice announced yesterday as digital justice moved a step closer to reality.
Global firm deploys robots to slash time spent on legal processes
A global law firm is deploying robotic process automation software in its high-volume legal practices, in some cases reducing the time taken to complete tasks from 35 minutes to just four minutes. But it told Legal Futures that its aim was to improve efficiency, not replace people.
PI spam text company owner disqualified as a director
The director of a lead generation company that was fined £200,000 for sending out thousands of spam text messages over personal injury, PPI and other claims, has now been disqualified as a director for six years for showing “disregard for the law”.
From idea to app in two days – the lawyers and tech companies aiding Trump travel ban immigrants
A group of volunteer lawyers and software developers worked over last weekend to create a new app to help travellers impacted by the Trump administration’s ‘immigration ban’, in what has been described as a “fantastic example of rapid prototyping and iterative design”.
Baker McKenzie to introduce AI-based due diligence technology as part of innovation drive
Baker McKenzie, the world’s second biggest law firm, has announced plans to introduce due diligence software based on machine learning, a form of artificial intelligence, as part of an innovation drive that looks to import ‘design thinking’ into how it delivers legal services.
AI-based start-up aims to give law firm and their clients glimpse of the future
A start-up using artificial intelligence (AI) to filter news and information, offering services that include being able to track how firms are perceived in the media and also give them intelligence tailored to their clients’ businesses, has acquired several major practices as clients.
Call for delay to making online court mandatory by “up to 10 years”
The online court should be trialled alongside physical courts for five to 10 years because so many people will be excluded – some one in five according to government figures – from accessing digital-only services, according to a leading researcher.
AI revolution could hit access to justice for people on low incomes
Artificial intelligence could have a knock-on impact on legal services for poorer people, such as weakening pro bono assistance by cutting the number of commercial lawyers, according to a report by leading researcher into online law, Professor Roger Smith.
Positive client reviews “mean higher fees for lawyers”
Lawyers who attract a sufficient number of positive client reviews are able to charge higher fees, the head of an online lawyer-matching service has claimed. He also said that having a single “odd-ball review” among a dozen good reviews could increase a lawyer’s standing.
Court of Appeal overturns finding that solicitor was fraudulent
The Court of Appeal has emphatically cleared a solicitor of fraud, expressing “some disquiet” at the trial judge’s findings to the contrary in an oil rig drilling case involving a $129m standby letter of credit. “Different legal minds may obviously take different views” on the legal question at the heart of the case, it said.
Blog
Legal director: an alternative to partnership
Firms are increasingly acknowledging the need for alternative senior roles – positions that offer influence and recognition without the obligations of ownership.
It’s time for law firms to ask tougher questions
For years, many law firms have treated ID verification as a box-ticking exercise. Run a liveness check, match a face to a document and move on. But that is no longer good enough.
Business fatigue to AI will risk job security
Whilst we know professional learning has always been part of career paths, to hire, retain and keep talent, AI needs to be embedded as a core part of this training.
