News

Big four accountancy firm PwC is to explore whether to absorb its associated law firm and become an alternative business structure. Legal services is the one area of the firm’s work where it is not able to operate as a totally integrated practice.

The Law Society has urged the government to reconsider a decision not to intervene in a European case that Chancery Lane claims opens up a new front in the battle over for whether companies can claim legal professional privilege for dealings with their in-house lawyers.

The number of people choosing to train as a costs lawyer has almost doubled during 2011 as the impact of several major forces – including the Jackson reforms and the Legal Services Act – are felt in the costs sector, the Association of Costs Lawyers has reported.

Alternative business structures could be decisive in helping smaller charities access legal advice with fixed fees, according to research which shows many lack understanding of their legal needs and cannot afford solicitors.

The Bar Council has begun work on providing central client account facilities for barristers, it emerged last night as incoming chairman Michael Todd QC set out his stall for 2012 with a call for barristers to invest in their future.

A former partner of London law firm Mishcon de Reya was yesterday convicted of forgery and two fraud offences aimed at conning a bank out of €22m. Kevin James Steele, 51 of Kent, will be sentenced on 9 January 2012.

The first video-conferencing kiosk to give instant access to a solicitor will be launched in a shopping centre this month, Legal Futures can reveal. Instant Law UK, which plans 120 kiosks by the end of 2012, will add a home-user service next month.

The Crown Prosecution Service has dropped charges against 11 solicitors and doctors who were accused of a £4m referral fee fraud involving after-the-event legal expenses insurance. The lawyers may instead be referred to the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

America last week moved a major step closer to introducing a version of legal disciplinary practices (LDPs), while ruling out multi-disciplinary practices. The American Bar Association has noted the “remarkable” growth of LDPs in England and Wales.

The Legal Ombudsman should have jurisdiction over non-lawyer employment advisers as part of work to improve consumer protection in the field, employment judges have suggested. Their primary concern was the lack of consistency in the redress available to claimants.