News

The controversial Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates (QASA) will now go live in April 2012, it emerged last week. We can also reveal that contingency plans have been drawn up for the judiciary not playing its expected role in QASA.

Going it alone in the new legal world “is simply a drawn-out closing down”, a leading law firm consultant has warned – while another has told law firms not to overlook “the power of the solicitor brand” when rushing to align themselves with national brands.

Legal education and training are unfit for purpose, causing lawyers to fail to meet the needs of clients and leaving the profession exposed to rival market entrants filling the gaps, according to Professor Stephen Mayson.

The Queen has granted the Institute of Legal Executives a Royal Charter, meaning that in future Fellows of ILEX will have a protected title – ‘chartered legal executive’. It will also change its name to the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives.

Solicitors cannot recover the cost of arranging conditional fee agreements and after-the-event insurance, the Court of Appeal ruled yesterday. The Master of the Rolls Lord Neuberger also made a significant ruling on the application of proportionality.

The legal market has “enormous scope for consolidation and this is as opportune a moment as there will be to invest” in it, a new report has claimed. Espirito Santo Investment Bank said 2012 will see the “acceleration” of merger activity.

Another new franchise will start targeting law firms next week under the brand ‘Simplify the Law’, Legal Futures can reveal. Its first major milestone is to create a national network of law firms with a combined turnover of £200m.

The ban on referral fees will not be a criminal offence and is to be enforced by the legal profession’s regulators instead, justice minister Jonathan Djanogly announced yesterday. Work is also underway to cut the £1,200 payable to solicitors under the RTA portal.

The Legal Services Consumer Panel is standing by its recommendation to retain referral fees, saying it has seen no new evidence of consumer detriment to back a ban. Meanwhile, the Bar Council says its legal advice shows referral fees fall foul of the Bribery Act.

There are too many barristers in private practice, Lord Chancellor Ken Clarke has said. In a report on a meeting with the justice secretary, Bar Council chairman Peter Lodder QC said Mr Clarke had also claimed it was “cloud cuckoo land” for chambers to think they could continue as they used to.