Practice Management

Although 80% of lawyers at small firms rate their services as ‘above average’ only 40% of clients rate them that way, a major study has found. The survey found that lawyers misunderstood clients’ priorities.

Solicitors will soon be able to ditch client accounts and instead use “third-party managed accounts”, their regulator has revealed. THe SRA said the use of such accounts may offer a lower-cost alternative that continues to provide appropriate protection.

Almost a half of law firms using insurance brokers to secure their indemnity cover in last year’s renewal said brokers failed to reveal their commissions, a Law Society survey has revealed.

Law firms, legal publishers, law societies and bar associations will be able to reserve web addresses using the new generic domain name .law for $200 (£135) a year, it has emerged.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has warned law firms against misleading publicity as the government’s ban on the use of inducements by personal injury solicitors came into force yesterday.

The Law Society has extended its consumer campaign promoting solicitors until the end of October this year, after an increase in traffic to the society’s ‘Find a Solicitor’ website of 18.5% in only four months.

A High Court judge has found that although international law firm Baker & McKenzie was negligent in advice it gave on Mexican tax law, it was not liable to pay damages to the company involved.

Lawyers who act on instructions in threatening potential intellectual property infringers with action are to be exempt from being sued when the threat turns out to be groundless, after the government recently gave the go-ahead for law reforms.

Smaller law firms continue to see merger, rather than external investment or bringing in non-lawyer owners, as the more likely path to growth, Law Society research has found. It also found that the majority of practices polled are now recording net profits ahead of where they were before the recession.

The Advertising Standards Authority has rejected a complaint against a west country personal injury law firm, saying that consumers now have “a general awareness that to have a valid claim there would have to be some degree of fault or negligence by a third party”.

Leading legal academics are developing a blueprint for ethical in-house practice, amid growing evidence that general counsel are under increasing pressure to compromise their professional ethics.

A criminal law firm has teamed up with a technology company to launch what it said is the first app to digitise the work of criminal lawyers, even when they are working offline in prisons or police stations.

A legal advice business run by a struck-off solicitor has been ordered into liquidation in the High Court on grounds of public interest following an investigation by the Insolvency Service.

The legal community has mixed feelings about the ‘equivalent means’ route to qualification as a solicitor, with even those who like the idea fearing the consquences of greater competition and consequently lower wages, according to a survey.

The claim last week by conveyancing portal Veyo that “just under a half of conveyancing firms in England and Wales have now registered” with it means simply that they have provided basic contact details to keep up-to-date with developments, Legal Futures has established.