News

The narrowing gap between wages paid in the UK and in booming Asian economies mean offshore legal process outsourcing providers are facing a growing threat from law firms setting up their own onshore operations, an LPO consultancy has claimed.

A recently listed third-party litigation funder is expecting to invest £50m in cases over the next year, Legal Futures can reveal, as separately Buford Capital, the largest funder in the world, enters the UK market by buying leading after-the-event provider Firstassist Legal Expenses.

“Unthinking reliance” on the indicative behaviours in the Code of Conduct is not a risk-free approach to compliance, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has warned. Larger firms should also not appoint their senior or managing partners to the role of compliance office for legal practice.

A number of companies are looking at registering their legal departments as alternative business structures (ABSs) in a bid to turn their in-house function into profit centres, it has been claimed. But there are difficulties to be addressed.

West country firm Ashfords was named conveyancer of the year in a major industry award ceremony last week. It also won the large conveyancer of the year gold medal, while Wiltshire practice Awdry Bailey & Douglas won small conveyancer of the year for firms with up to 15 fee-earners.

Mortgage lenders need to agree a system that allows them collectively to vet law firms that want to be on conveyancing panels, the head of mortgage fraud at Lloyds Banking Group said yesterday.

Goodwill may start to reappear in law firms’ accounts as the prospect of external finance and the growing trade in legal practices drives a new push to put a value on them, a leading expert has predicted.

Decisions taken by the Solicitors Regulation Authority under outcomes-focused regulation need to be urgently monitored to ensure they are fair to ethnic minority lawyers, an internal report has said. The SRA has also provided an update on its online renewal system.

Consumers are generally happy with high street conveyancers and by contrast very cool about the idea of going to a big brand to help them move house, a major new opinion poll has found. YouGov surveyed 1,959 people who had bought a house in the last two years.

Co-operative Legal Services has confirmed that it intends to submit its bid to become an alternative business structure on 3 January 2012 – the day the Solicitors Regulation Authority will begin accepting applications.