Practice Management

The body representing chartered legal executives has called on the profession to end discrimination against lawyers who have qualified through non-university routes and open up the senior judiciary to those entered the law by alternative means.

A law firm and solicitor found to have sexually discriminated against a student who worked there for six weeks have lost their appeal against the £14,000 award for injury to feelings. In her interview, the solicitor “jokingly” asked her to marry him, and commented on her figure.

Civil, property and employment matters are the most-searched for areas of practice on the Bar Council’s Direct Access Portal, figures released yesterday showed – with EU law fourth on the list as people and businesses try to come to terms with Brexit.

Chambers are seeing more grievances over discriminatory treatment by both employees and members, according to solicitors who advise them on dealing with their equality and diversity obligations. They said diversity presents a “particular challenge to chambers largely as a result of their unique business structure.

Global firm Dentons has made its play to be a key adviser to companies on the impact of Brexit by developing a cognitive search engine tool that can be used for Brexit-related contract reviews. It is also working on a software application that automatically creates a ‘Brexit action plan’ for clients.

The Employment Appeal Tribunal has dismissed an appeal against a decision that a top-100 regional law firm was not guilty of age discrimination against one of its partners, after he was not offered a new partnership when it restructured.

Lord Justice Briggs published his final report on the structure of the civil courts and retained his strong support for the creation of an online court for claims worth up to £25,000, although he has shifted position to say that parties should be able to recover a limited amount of legal costs.

Several well-known law firms have signed up to Oratto, the latest ‘find a lawyer’ website to hit the market, including Manchester firms JMW, Berg and Pannone Corporate, Liverpool’s Jackson Canter, Sheffield-based Simpson Sissons & Brooke, and Peterborough-based Buckles.

The Legal Services Consumer Panel said last week that it was “not blind to the challenges of increased price transparency”, but insisted that making lawyers publish “average” prices could be the catalyst for making consumers ask more questions about cost.

The Legal Services Board has shied away from recommending a single solution which all the legal regulators should follow on indemnity insurance. The LSB instead called on the regulators to work more closely together on the issue.

The online small claims court expected to be the model for England and Wales was launched in Canada last week when the Act moving it from voluntary to mandatory claims came into force. The value threshold for claims will eventually will rise to those up to C$25,000 (£14,610).

A lawyer-matching service to be launched by a Manchester solicitor next month aims to recruit 15,000 to 20,000 clients by the end of the year. Kid Harwood, director of Lawbid, said the service wanted to change the “balance of power” for consumers.

A paralegal’s claim of disability discrimination after he was sacked by a law firm was wrongly struck out, the Employment Appeal Tribunal has ruled. However, HHJ David Richardson said that Leicester firm Bond Adams had a strong case.

There are high levels of consumer satisfaction with legal services, according to a survey commissioned by the Competition and Markets Authority. However, those who were not happy usually did not bother complaining because it was thought to be too time-consuming or would not achieve much.

The “grandiloquent, rhetorical and at times almost facetious” advocacy style of a criminal defence barrister has no place in modern trials, the Court of Appeal has said. It found the barrister “certainly appears to take a considerable degree of satisfaction in having a style all of his own”.