Practice Management

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has begun work on developing a “centralised assessment of competence” that potential solicitors would have to pass to qualify, it has emerged. It comes as Mayer Brown became the first City law firm to unveil a six-year ‘articled apprenticeship’ programme.

A new video platform has been hailed as the “missing link” in improving the ability of direct access barristers to attract more clients. Virtual chambers ShenSmith has been trialling ODRO Vision.

The chief executive of Britain’s biggest conveyancing firm, myhomemove, has predicted that Veyo, the online portal launched yesterday by the Law Society and Mastek, “will fail”. Doug Crawford was unveiling a new version of myhomemove’s eWay.

Veyo, the online conveyancing portal developed by the Law Society and IT giant Mastek, went live today with around 80 law firms taking part in the first phase. A much larger group of 1,800 firms which expressed an interest in the system will be able to join shortly.

Solicitors working pro bono could offer a triage system to people who cannot, or think they cannot, afford a lawyer so that they can understand their options for resolving legal disputes, the Law Society has told the new government.

A judge has launched an extraordinary attack on “by far the worst solicitor witness I have ever seen giving evidence in the witness box”. Edward Abenson told Legal Futures that the judge was “very harsh” on him.

International law firm Dentons has launched NextLaw Labs, “a global collaborative innovation platform” to develop and invest in new technologies and “transform the practice of law around the world”.

A former Addleshaw Goddard partner has set up a website to help in-house lawyers and law firms work together more effectively. Richard Fleetwood is working on GC Hub with the former head of legal at Rolls-Royce.

Problems with communication continue to dog solicitors, the results of the largest-ever client research have shown, while the way they follow up potential leads is another area where major improvement is needed.

There is still a gap in the market for an “essential, go-to website for employment law”, Professor Roger Smith, solicitor and former director of JUSTICE, has said in an update to his report on digital delivery for people on low incomes.

Cyber security is becoming a central issue for professional indemnity insurers, and firms will in future need to demonstrate what protections they have against cyber criminals before they are offered cover, a leading broker has predicted.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) will focus more on individual regulation and less on firms in the year ahead, chief executive Paul Philip has said.

Economic pressures forcing solicitors to ‘commoditise’ their advice “throw into sharp focus the need for standard form letters of advice to be clear in their exposition”, the Court of Appeal warned yesterday.

Professional negligence as a discrete body of law could disappear if restrictions on the liability of professionals continue to be swept aside as social attitudes towards them also change, Lord Justice Jackson has predicted.

All but one of the entities authorised by the Bar Standards Board since the beginning of this month consist of a single barrister, with the other made up of two barristers, it has emerged.