Market monitor

A unique alternative business structure that combines legal and political advice has unveiled a former economic adviser to President GW Bush as its latest high-profile hire.

The alternative legal services provider market has expanded rapidly in recent years, with those operated by law firms the smallest but fastest-growing part, a report has found.

Many of the top 100 law firms have online trust issues because they do not comply with an SRA rule requiring them to display the regulator’s badge prominently and fail to engage with reviews.

City law firms are partnering with the Social Mobility Pledge to help young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, with firms and chambers also signing up to the #10000BlackInterns programme.

Fast-growing wealth management and legal services firm Progeny has continued its expansion by acquiring conveyancing firm Watson Law, with three financial planning firms next on its agenda.

A barrister specialising in civil and criminal tax disputes has set up a virtual chambers with the aim of making it the biggest of its kind by the end of next year.

The time has come for the Ministry of Justice to consider whether lawtech companies, along with other unregulated legal services providers, should be regulated, ACSO has said.

The Brexit agreement, greeted by lawyers with “sighs of relief”, had led to a “much more clunky world” for legal services, with important issues like privilege unresolved, the Law Society president has said.

There is finally movement on the rule changes required to make the whiplash reforms happen, with the new pre-action protocol all but approved last month, it has emerged.

A consultants-led law firm based in Yorkshire has unveiled plans for national expansion after seeing its caseload double in 2020 with the post-lockdown conveyancing boom.