Market monitor

The Law Society is undergoing its latest internal reorganisation, with the aim of creating “the Future Law Society” by 2022. It also wants solicitors to focus on work that cannot be automated.

Private equity-owned national firm Simpson Millar has increased its staff to over 500 and extended its reach in the North-West with the acquisition of a Lancaster-based general practice.

Hodge Jones & Allen has become the first law firm to be entirely owned by its employees like retailer John Lewis after its equity partners agreed to sell the business to an employee ownership trust.

Sir Nigel Knowles has warned the top commercial law firms that the big four accountants are “a force that no law firm can match” in their ability to invest in capital projects.

A dispute with its former after-the-event insurer was the key factor in private equity-backed Roberts Jackson becoming insolvent and being sold in a pre-pack, it has emerged.

International law firm DWF is heading towards its blockbuster stock market listing barring an unexpected economic upheaval, its chairman indicated yesterday.

The Lord Chancellor yesterday hailed the impact of alternative business structures in driving competition and fostering innovation in the legal market.

The level of innovation in the legal market has “stagnated and fallen in some areas” in recent years, but there are a number of encouraging signs for the future, major new research has revealed.

A new app that offers users the full range of consumer legal advice and support for £24 a month is to be piloted in the coming weeks ahead of a roll-out early next year.

Six out of 10 consumers are unaware that will-writers are unregulated, although many people are interested in writing their own wills anyway, new research has found.

Brexit will not change London and the UK’s position as a global leader in legal services, a City lobby group has predicted, as it reported the revenue at the top 100 firms grew to £24.2bn.

The risk of a no-deal Brexit is leading some law firms to advise clients to exclude English law from contracts, MPs have been told.

The government risks the UK legal system being “relegated to the world’s second division, at the worst possible time” because of Brexit, the chairman of the Bar Council has warned.

The UK’s first listed law firm, Gateley, is expecting its annual revenue to top £100m for the first time, at least a 20% increase in turnover, it told the stock exchange today.

The Civil Liability Bill overcame its final parliamentary hurdle yesterday as a leading insurer admitted that the £35 reduction in motor premiums might be swallowed up by other costs.