News

The Legal Services Board has approved changes to the Bar Code of Conduct that will allow barristers to become partners and employees of alternative business structures. The bar’s rulebook as currently drafted would prevents barristers from working for an ABS.

Pioneering US legal services business LegalZoom is planning to launch in the UK next year, Legal Futures can reveal. Senior management are in the UK this week to view possible headquarters for the operation, which has been described as the most recognised legal brand in America.

Many law firms engage private investigators, but the phone hacking scandal illustrates the risk they run by hiring unregulated people, says Tony Immosi, president of the Association of British Investigators.

The number of incorporated law firms has risen sharply in the past year, with more than a fifth of legal practices now limited companies. According to Solicitors Regulation Authority figures, 2,400 of the 10,973 law firms as of July were incorporated companies, compared to 1,898 a year before – a rise of 26%.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has welcomed the suspension of a solicitor who failed to pay his assigned risks pool premium as it vowed to step up enforcement efforts against other such firms with the end of the indemnity year looming.

Frank Maher, a partner at Liverpool law firm Legal Risk LLP, outlines the new requirements on law firms to appoint compliance officers and the difficult issues they raise for practices in choosing who to appoint and the extent of the role.

There will be three different costs pilots running from this autumn as the impact of the Jackson report spreads, the Civil Procedure Rule Committee has decided. It has also accepted the report’s recommendation to reverse the Court of Appeal’s highly controversial Carver ruling.

Smaller law firms are set to have more choice for the professional indemnity insurance this year after Legal & Professional Insurance entered into an agreement with broker Marsh to target practices with two and three partners.

Public access barristers will be able to compete more effectively with solicitors for legal aid clients under an urgent rule change being considered by the Bar Standards Board. However, both the speed of and the motivation for the move have been criticised by the Legal Services Consumer Panel.

Rocket Lawyer, the Google-backed American online legal document business, is set to launch in the UK next year and will be looking for lawyers to offer services to its customers, Legal Futures can reveal. The company says the UK is an attractive destination for its products.