Private Client
MoJ: “Time has come” to mandate online probate applications
The “time has come” for solicitors and other professional users to apply for the vast majority of grants of probate online – but not yet letters of administration – the government said yesterday.
Private client lawyer targets wealthy with strategic consultancy
A senior private client lawyer has launched a strategic consultancy to advise wealthy individuals and families from around the world on succession, risk, governance and dispute resolution.
Wills firm justified in sacking employee who left client sweary message
A will-writing business was entitled to fire a member of staff who accidentally left a message on a potential client’s voicemail about getting drunk and littered with swear words, a tribunal has ruled.
Will-writing entrepreneur obtains “first digital LPA”
The founder of will-writing software firm WillSuite has obtained what he believes is the first ever digital lasting power of attorney. He said the process took five months.
MPs urge action on lawyers who facilitate “aggressive tax avoidance”
The lawyers and others who devise and market ineffective tax avoidance schemes are often breaking the law and a few legislative tweaks will make it easier to prosecute them, MPs have claimed.
Accountancy body withdraws from legal services regulation
The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants has decided to withdraw from legal services regulation and contract it out to CILEx Regulation, in the first move of its kind.
Government set to mandate online probate applications
Solicitor and other probate practitioners will have to apply online for grants of probate or letters of administration, under government proposals published today.
Introducing the summer 2020 edition of Entitlement from Title Research
The summer 2020 edition of Entitlement, Title Research’s quarterly news digest, is now available for legal professionals to download completely free of charge.
MoJ to allow and backdate remote will witnessing
The government is to legalise the remote witnessing of wills for two years, backdating the change to 31 January this year to reassure those who have already done it during the pandemic.
CILEx calls for permanent power of attorney change
The Chartered Institute of Legal Executives has called for a permanent law change after the Land Registry began accepting copies of lasting powers of attorney certified by CILEx lawyers.
Farewill raises £20m to fuel exponential growth
Online will-writer Farewill has raised £20m as it targets a major expansion in revenue, staff numbers and new services, including powers of attorney.
Why the rise in contentious probate cases is set to continue
There is no doubt that contentious probate work is growing. We do not like paying more than a couple of hundred pounds for a will, but then are seemingly happy to spend thousands taking our relatives to court, and the two do not sit happily together.
Financial adviser owned by staff and clients launches ABS
A firm of financial advisers has launched an alternative business structure to provide its clients with legal services which it claims are faster and “at least a third cheaper”.
Employment and commercial work fare best during crisis
Employment and commercial work are seeing the biggest increases in demand from clients, research has found. However, lockdown has had a “devastating impact” on other practice areas.
Judge: Investor who lost pension was not law firm’s client
A man who lost his pension after investing in self-storage pods with disastrous results was not the client of the law firm who advised on it, a judge has held.
Blog
From AI ambition to operational reality
AI is no longer an emerging technology on the horizon. It has become the connective tissue binding law, regulation, risk and commercial decision-making.
From text to world: The legal significance of multimodal AI
The next phase of AI, already underway, will integrate text with vision, sound, motion and even touch. This will produce systems that no longer ‘read about’ the world but perceive it.
The new leaders of law
Where once many law firm owners remained technology sceptics, a growing number are now shaped by leaders who are digitally fluent and commercially oriented.
