Lawyers and accountants – happy marriage or divorce in the making?
Among the many things that the Legal Services Act has done is revive the idea of multi-disciplinary practices (MDPs), thought dead after the Enron scandal a decade ago and compounded in the US by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. It is often forgotten that there was no MDP actually involved in Enron.
Lessons from a Glasgow charity shop
“Charity shops beware?” asked Viv Williams in his blog last week, wondering if legal brands might replace charity shops as the ubiquitous face of the high street. With QualitySolicitors, Lawyers2you, face2face solicitors and the rest all vying to build the solicitor brand, it is not beyond the bounds of possibility. Well, the charity shops are already hitting back. Kind of. Last week innovative Scottish solicitor Brian Inkster set up what he calls a “pop-up wills kiosk” in a Barnardo’s shop in the city, during Remember a Charity week. The results were impressive.
Charity shops beware?
The growth in access points for “legal services” is gaining unprecedented momentum. So what does this mean for the future? Could it spell the end of the road for some of the charity shops that have come to dominate many of our struggling high streets and shopping precincts? Will we see new entrants to the market, all offering legal services, taking over the leases for these premises?
The Dangerous Fees Act 2011
A senior figure in the world of legal regulation yesterday described to me the impending effort to ban referral fees as the Dangerous Fees Act, recalling the infamously half-baked and kneejerk Dangerous Dogs Act 1991.
On the road to hell?
To borrow a cliché, how do you solve a problem like Solicitors from Hell (SfH)? The Law Society has chosen to get heavy, co-ordinating a group action on behalf of law firms named on the site in a bid to have it closed down. But the question is whether the Law Society has got its tactics right here. Would it be better off simply ignoring SfH?
