Practice Management

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has decided to go ahead with cutting the minimum compulsory cover for indemnity insurance from £2m to £500,000, despite strong opposition from the Law Society.

Smaller law firms are struggling to retain their junior partners in advance of tough new capital requirements set out by HM Revenue & Customs in its crackdown on fixed-share partners avoiding PAYE tax, an executive search firm has claimed.

The Law Society is to spend £400,000 on its annual advertising campaign, which will this year be focused mainly on a range of private client services from solicitors, Legal Futures can reveal.

The Law Society is planning to use the European Court of Justice’s ruling on the right to be forgotten online to challenge anti-solicitor websites. The news comes as the society said it was to write to the FCA, SRA and police over Wonga’s use of bogus law firms.

A five-year project to celebrate the achievements of women lawyers has been launched, culminating at the centenary of the Act of Parliament which abolished the bar on their entry into the profession.

The Law Society is set to reduce the cost of practising by around 20%, even though its budget is going up in 2014/15. The net funding requirement for the next financial year is £116.7m, a 3.7% increase on this year’s budget.

Alternative legal services provider Lawyers On Demand (LOD) has launched a Manchester ‘hub’, its first outside of London, in a bid to expand its ‘on site’ model of placing freelance lawyers into companies.

Pinsent Masons is an example to other law firms on how to make the most of a Twitter account, while the ‘private’ setting on Slaughter and May’s account makes it the firm not to emulate, according to a report on the use of social media by large City law firms.

Flight compensation specialist Bott & Co is lining up a “series of similar niches” in the consumer world to capitalise on its successes with aviation, with a focus on IT, processes and client care.

One in six solicitors complain of being under severe stress, although almost nine out ten reported they were in good health – substantially more than workers among the general population, according to Law Society research.

A website which claims to have published 10,000 reviews from clients of independent financial advisers (IFAs) and mortgage brokers is seeking to move on to solicitors.

InjuryLawyers4u, the leading law firm marketing consortium, is paying Google £8m a year, it has emerged. Andrew Twambley, director of InjuryLawyers4U and managing partner of Amelans, said the consortium was spending £3m four years ago.

Leading retailer Greg Tufnell, new non-executive chairman of innovative legal practice Radiant Law, has told Legal Futures that changed expectations among clients over pricing is one of the key elements driving disruption in the legal market.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority’s proposed indemnity insurance reforms have been attacked from all sides by the legal services consumer panel, the Law Society and the insurance industry itself.

Two million online searches on legal subjects are made every day in the UK, according to a senior Google executive, who went on to advise lawyers that their future clients would increasingly be reached through video and mobile technology.