Practice Management

DAS Law – the alternative business structure set up by the eponymous legal expenses insurer – is launching a pioneering graduate academy for “lawyers of the future”, with the first six recruits starting next month. Staff numbers at the firm have doubled to around 220 since it was created in 2013.

The Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) is planning to introduce solicitor-style indemnity insurance arrangements, in a bid to make it easier for law firms to switch regulator. Embracing an open market scheme instead of a master policy would help “make a reality” of the “theoretical” freedom of law firms to change.

More than one in five law firms have been targeted by scammers in the past year, Law Society research has revealed. Money was successfully stolen from client account in 8% of these cases. However the society’s annual indemnity survey found that average premiums paid by firms with up to 25 partners were down by 8%.

Riverview Law’s ground-breaking development of technology for use by in-house counsel and others in the law this week saw the launch of its first two ‘virtual assistants’. Powered by the alternative business structure’s ‘Kim’ technology platform, they cover instruction and triage, and general case management.

Online dispute resolution such as that used for low-value disputes by eBay could be the only way of ensuring access to justice in moderate-sized claims in future – but the Bar Council is trying to find an alternative that retains hearings, according to the president of the Supreme Court.

Almost half of law firms have already moved to the new approach of ‘continuing competence’ that no longer includes collecting CPD points – nearly six months ahead of it becoming compulsory.Meanwhile, the Bar Standards Board has announced that similar CPD regime for barristers will go live in January 2017.

The Legal Software Suppliers Association has ended its agreement with conveyancing portal Free2Convey, it has emerged. Free2Convey was set up by the LSSA last autumn as a rival to the Law Society’s failed conveyancing portal Veyo.

The conveyancers on both sides of a property fraud have been found jointly liable for the £470,000 loss suffered by the buyer. The ruling of His Honour Judge Pelling QC, sitting as a High Court judge, is the first authority on the obligations owed by a seller’s solicitor to a purchaser.

The Court of Appeal has overturned a High Court ruling that had protected law firms from financial risk through restricting the way professional indemnity insurers could aggregate multiple claims. However, the case is not over as it has been sent for retrial.

Taylor Vinters will this week implement artificial intelligence contract review software developed by a law tech company that the law firm has invested in. Last month another tech investment by the firm, Pekama, launched a mobile app

The Bar Standards Board is to investigate whether male barristers with new-born children should be entitled to a form of shared parental leave, with the Bar Council calling for provisions which would give them a rent rebate from their chambers while not working.

There is a “disturbing level of tunnel vision” among law firms when it comes to adopting modern customer service standards, which could ultimately make the difference between success and failure, according to a report published today. It said that in an ever competitive market, law firms that are not thriving may only have a brief chance to turn things around before it is too late.

Eliminating lawyers from the dispute resolution process should not be one of the aims of the online court (OC), the group that first proposed it has told Lord Justice Briggs. At the same time, it said the OC should be seen as paving the way for a court service that is “a blend of online service and conventional courtroom activity”.

Not involving expert conveyancers sufficiently was one of several fundamental failings that led to the collapse of the Law Society’s Veyo project, which has cost solicitors £7m, a review has concluded. External consultants said there was not one single decision or mistake which resulted in Veyo’s demise.

There is a serious lack of transparency over the pricing of common legal services, major new research has found – with those providers who do publish their rates and also the ones who offer fixed fees generally cheaper than law firms that do not.