News

Everyone in a law firm should be involved in sales and business development, says Kate Fleming of HuthwaiteFleming, and she explains how those who see themselves solely as service providers can help create value for clients

The Legal Services Board is expected take over responsibility for overseeing the regulation of immigration advisers by the legal professional bodies from the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC), starting in April 2011.

Solicitors could be struck off for failing to pay the interest they have made on client accounts to the government, under proposals released today. The interest would be used to bolster the legal aid fund after the Ministry of Justice today unveiled a package to cut as much as £440m from the legal aid budget. The Jackson reforms will be implemnted but with possible “refinements”.

The focus on law firms in the assigned risks pool has led to a significant fall in the number of other monitoring visits conducted by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), Legal Futures can report. The SRA says the move is an example of its shift towards risk-based regulation.

Mandatory quality assurance for criminal advocates is welcome but the scheme currently proposed by the legal profession falls short in several significant ways, the Legal Services Consumer Panel said today. Among the problems are a failure to consider consumer needs, weaker standards than had been consulted on, and allowing advocates to choose which cases they are assessed on.

The number of solicitors has grown by nearly 50%, and the number of firms by a third, in the past decade, Legal Futures research has discovered. According to SRA figures, for the first time the number of solicitors on the roll has topped 150,000 (it is now 153,971), and the number of practising solicitors has gone over 120,000 (120,917).

There is a strong case for some lawyers facing periodic reaccreditation and for creating a single badge to help consumers distinguish between regulated and unregulated providers, the Legal Services Consumer Panel said in a report published today. Responding to a request from the Legal Services Board for consumer perspectives on quality, the panel drew on consumer research it commissioned and found support for lawyers undergoing “a regular MOT”.

National law firm group QualitySolicitors (QS) is opening 54 new branches across England and Wales on Thursday, including what it says is the first ever legal store in a shopping centre. Claiming the store will be “the start of a revolution in legal services”, QualitySolicitors Freeman Harris in Lewisham shopping centre, south London, will offer free initial consultations, late-night opening on Thursdays as well as weekend opening, and fixed-priced services, including “instant wills” drafted while clients finish their shopping.

The Council of Mortgage Lenders has launched an investigation into the impact of more borrowers and lenders having separate legal representation as lenders continue to restrict their panels, it has emerged. It has also given a cautious welcome to the Law Society’s new conveyancing quality scheme and sounded a warning over suggestions that the requirements of solicitors’ professional indemnity insurance will be relaxed.

Some 240 of the 336 law firms in the assigned risks pool (ARP) are new to the insurance safety net, with 10-20% of the total thought to pose a “serious risk”, it has emerged. Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) papers show that 30-60 firms are in the serious risk category and face immediate SRA investigations, with referrals for regulatory action to be made where appropriate.