Tag Results
Should the LSB be abolished?
Monday, 14 February 2011Here’s an interesting thought I’ve heard of late: in a few months’ time, will we need the Legal Services Board? The board’s three main purposes were to secure the independence of regulation from representation, set up the Legal Ombudsman, and deliver alternative business structures. The first two of these have been done, with the other due in less than eight months.
Tags: ABS, Alternative business structures, Law Society, Legal Ombudsman, Legal Services Board
Posted in Blog
Council for Licensed Conveyancers is first to apply to become an ABS regulator
Monday, 14 February 2011The Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) is on course to become the first body licensed to regulate alternative business structures, after submitting its application to the Legal Services Board. The CLC, which oversees 10-15% of the conveyancing market, has also applied to extend the range of reserved activities it regulates from conveyancing and probate to awarding rights of audience and the right to conduct litigation.
Tags: ABS, advocacy, Alternative business structures, Council for Licensed Conveyancers, Legal Services Board, reserved legal activities
Posted in Alternative business structures, News, Other lawyers
News in brief: Co-op expands legal arm, paralegals on the up and much more
Friday, 11 February 2011Our weekly round-up of other news takes in further expansion at Co-operative Legal Services, two innovations on the paralegal front, “virtual” firms piloting the SRA’s relationship management, and a tricky decision for LSB chairman David Edmonds
Tags: ABS, Alternative business structures, Co-op, legal process outsourcing, Legal Services Board, LPO, Scotland, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in Market monitor, News, News In Brief, Outsourcing, Solicitors
Licensed conveyancers on top as Land Registry figures expose “cottage industry”
Tuesday, 8 February 2011The fragmented nature of the conveyancing market has been laid bare by figures showing that nearly a third of the 9,000 legal practices which registered dealings with the Land Registry last year handled 10 or fewer transfers. While MyHomeMove made almost 10,000 applications for transfers in 2010, 834 firms only made one application the whole 12 months, according to Land Registry figures.
Tags: ABS, Alternative business structures, conveyancing, licensed conveyancers
Posted in Market monitor, News
LSB presses ahead with plan to regulate ABSs amid concerns over Law Society vote
Friday, 4 February 2011The Legal Services Board is pushing ahead with preparations to regulate alternative business structures itself because of fears that the Law Society council will next month block the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s plan to become an ABS regulator, Legal Futures has learned.
Tags: ABS, Alternative business structures, Law Society, Legal Services Board, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in Alternative business structures, Legal Services Board, News
SRA to consider compulsory ethics training for all solicitors as it plans major CPD review
Tuesday, 1 February 2011Ethics training could become a compulsory element of solicitors’ continuing professional development as part of a fundamental review to be conducted by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, Legal Futures has learned. The review – described by the SRA as “overdue” – will look to ensure that CPD “works in the new world of alternative business structures and outcome-focused regulation”.
Tags: ABS, Alternative business structures, continuing professional development, CPD, ethics, OFR, outcomes-focused regulation, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in News, Solicitors
Profits up for Scotland’s big firms, but down for most others as ABSs loom, survey finds
Monday, 31 January 2011Scotland’s larger law firms saw a rise in profits last year despite a 11% dip across the profession as a whole, research has found. The Law Society of Scotland’s survey showed that average profits per equity partner fell from £72,000 in 2009 to £64,000 last year. It is the second consecutive drop, from a high in 2008 of £104,000.
Tags: ABS, Alternative business structures, Scotland
Posted in Finance, Market monitor, News
£150m limit for fines against ABSs is not high enough, says SRA
Wednesday, 26 January 2011The miners’ compensation scandal shows that a maximum fine of £150m for misconduct or non-compliance by alternative business structures is too low, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has warned. With new entrants set to enter the legal market after 6 October, it was “perhaps dangerous to rely too heavily upon turnover figures in the current market to assess appropriate fining powers”.
Tags: ABS, Alternative business structures, Legal Services Act, Legal Services Board, Solicitors Regulation Authority
Posted in Alternative business structures, Legal Services Act, Legal Services Board, News, Solicitors
The themes of 2011, part 3 (and that’s it)
Friday, 21 January 2011With January running out, it really is time to stop doing 2011 lists, so here is the last instalment of themes I expect to pervade Legal Futures’ coverage during this year. This time I look at legal services and the web, outsourcing in all its many guises, and the changing face of litigation practice.
Tags: ABS, Alternative business structures, Jackson report, legal process outsourcing, LPO, Online Legal Services, outsourcing
Posted in Blog
Don’t use external investment to strip value from firms, partners warned
Thursday, 20 January 2011Partners in law firms that receive external investment after October will alienate younger colleagues if they appear to be stripping the firm of value for future generations, a report has warned.
Tags: ABS, Alternative business structures, external investment, partnerships
Posted in Alternative business structures, hrtraining, News