The Solicitors Regulation Authority has been celebrating the first year of its ABS licensing regime. It is not just a numbers game, but with 74 licences granted in that time and 300-odd still inching their way through the application process, it perhaps hasn’t necessarily been quite as glorious a first year as the SRA is making out – another way of looking at it is that there is a large backlog – but it has certainly been interesting given the range of approvals.

An outcomes-focused, risk-based approach to regulating the activities of most lawyers who deliver legal services in a post-Legal Services Act landscape is a fact of life. Yet you still don’t have to go far to find solicitors who either fail to grasp the concept or hanker after the old, detailed rules-based system. The degree of non-acceptance is profound, more than a year after outcomes-focused regulation came in – in October 2011. So persistent is it that the SRA may be relying on the insertion of compliance officers for legal practice and financial administration (COLPs and COFAs) into the fabric of every firm to help change attitudes.

Christmas has been and gone and the festivities of New Year are over. Despite the hangover, is the real headache yet to come? Possibly, if you’re starting 2013 as your firm’s compliance office for legal practice and/or for finance and administration (COLP/COFA). here might well be a surge of activity and enthusiasm at the start but as time goes on and other priorities come to the fore, the risk of neglecting the fitness regime increases. This can’t be allowed to happen. So what should COLPs and COFAs be looking to do in the first month of their new role?

Posted by Stephen Moore: In April next year, the legal sector will face another huge shake-up as the ban on personal injury referrals comes into force. According to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), personal Injury work is worth an estimated £1.8bn a year. A quarter of all solicitor firms in England and Wales carry out personal injury work, which, in 2011 accounted for 7% of the total estimated market value. The Law Society of England and Wales most recent annual report lists general personal injury work as among the most competitive areas alongside the likes of conveyancing, crime and wills and probate. What differentiates personal injury from these other sectors, of course, is the existence of claims management companies.

Posted by Arlene Adams, CEO of Legal Futures Associate, Peppermint Technology: Some 86% of law firms claim they will replace and invest in new business applications in the coming 24 months. This is a significant finding, well above industry average, but reflects the change in the UK legal market today. The market dynamics brought about by the Legal Services Act and the Jackson reforms are driving firms to adopt technology to compete and survive.