All articles by Rachel Rothwell – Page 23
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News
RBS offers legal documentation to small business clients
The Royal Bank of Scotland launched a product that will provide legal documentation and advice to its small business customers this week. The service, Smarta Business Builder, incorporates a range of online accounting, business and legal services, with legal software provided by Epoq. ...
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News
Is WHSmith deal a smart move for QualitySolicitors?
Today’s news that QualitySolicitors is to put a member of staff in WHSmith stores throughout the country has provoked a strong reaction from the profession; as any regular visitor to the Gazette site would expect. Whenever the Gazette reports on the latest QS initiative, the ...
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News
Legal Ombudsman is 'consumer-unfriendly'
The Legal Ombudsman was last week accused by a consumer watchdog of capitulating to ‘spurious objections from the legal profession’, after announcing plans for a ‘staged approach’ to publishing information about complaints against law firms. In the first part of a three-stage approach, LeO has begun ...
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Solicitors Regulation Authority unveils handbook
The Solicitors Regulation Authority published the final version of its new solicitors handbook this week, as it revealed it had received ‘quite a number’ of enquiries from potential new market entrants about becoming alternative business structures. The SRA has applied to become a regulator of ...
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News
Personal injury solicitors will cut use of CFAs, poll finds
Personal injury lawyers will cut the number of conditional fee agreements they offer to clients as a direct result of the civil justice funding reforms announced by the government last week, according to research seen exclusively by the Gazette. A survey of 100 claimant personal injury ...
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Report shows drop in training contract places
The number of training contracts offered by law firms fell by 18% last year, Law Society figures have shown. The Society’s annual statistical report reveals that only 4,784 training contract places were offered in 2010, compared to 5,809 in 2009. The ...
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Young women solicitors far outnumber men
Women solicitors significantly outnumber men at the younger end of the profession, according to Law Society research published today. If current trends continue, the profession could comprise more women than men within the next ten years. The Society’s annual statistical report shows ...
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News
Ombudsman under fire over ‘cautious’ approach to complaints publishing
The Legal Ombudsman was accused of having fallen for ‘spurious objections from the legal profession’ today as it revealed its plans for a ‘staged approach’ to publishing information about complaints against law firms. In the first part of a three-stage approach, LeO has immediately begun ...
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Law Society warns LSB over 'micro-management'
The Legal Services Board must resist the urge to ‘micro-manage’ aspects of legal regulation, and should reduce its budget rather than extending its role to become an ‘economic regulator’, the Law Society has warned. Responding to the LSB’s draft business plan, Chancery Lane also cautioned that ...
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Aptitude tests would be a positive step for BPTC and LPC students
Young people worried about the current oversupply of Legal Practice Course graduates will no doubt be looking with interest at how the bar’s regulator is seeking to address a similar issue in its own branch of the profession. Earlier today, the Bar Standards Board announced a new timetable for its ...
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News
Consumers want clarity over law firm charges
Consumers want to see charges that are easy to understand, and a ‘solicitor who remembers their name’ when they use a law firm, according to research commissioned by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. A study based on interviews with 40 recent purchasers of legal services found that ...
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News
Hudson issues warning on ABS crime risk
The Solicitors Regulation Authority must ensure that solicitors do not end up picking up the bill for inappropriate claims on the compensation fund made by alternative business structures, the Law Society chief executive said this week. Desmond Hudson (pictured) also warned that the SRA’s proposed rules ...
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News
‘More needs to be done’ to address inequality in the profession
The Law Society is ‘making strides’ to promote equality and equal practice in the legal profession, Law Society president Linda Lee said today as the Society marks the global centenary of International Women’s Day. Lee, who will host a roundtable discussion on women in the ...
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News
Firms make ‘initial contact’ with external investors
More than two-thirds of law firms would be ‘comfortable’ securing funding from an external investor when Alternative Business Structures are introduced in October, and 30% have already made initial contact with potential investors, according to research released today. A survey of 200 solicitors carried out for ...
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News
Neuberger warns against mediation and defends legal aid and Jackson
The Master of the Rolls warned against mediation being used as a replacement for the courts, defended the cost of legal aid, and voiced strong support for Lord Justice Jackson’s civil justice reforms in a speech earlier this week. Giving the annual Bentham Lecture, Lord Neuberger ...
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News
Law firms must step into the breach if LPC loans dry up
NatWest has recently decided that it will withdraw its Professional Trainee Loan scheme for students studying the Legal Practice Course and the bar’s equivalent course. It declined to say exactly why it had taken the decision to no longer offer the product to new customers, ...
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News
Legal recruitment picks up for in-house and banking
The ‘war for talent’ is hotting up in the in-house sector, with companies increasingly entering into a bidding war for candidates, according to recruitment firm Badenoch & Clark. The recruiter’s executive director Lynne Hardman said that recruitment is also picking up in the banking sector and ...
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News
The Legal Services Board’s glowing view of ABSs is not realistic
Reading through the Legal Services Board’s draft business plan for 2011/12, I was stuck by the glowing vision it presented of the post-alternative business structure world. It seemed to me to be the type of gushing enthusiasm that you would expect from the government department ...
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Study to examine oversupply of LPC graduates
An in-depth study into education and training within the profession will address the current ‘mismatch’ between the number of Legal Practice Course graduates and training contracts, and will assess the role of paralegals, the Legal Services Board has said.
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Consumers back 'name and shame' complaints policy
Consumers are generally in favour of ‘naming and shaming’ law firms that are subject to complaints, but would only expect information to be published when a firm has had three complaints upheld against it in 12 months, according to research released today. The findings of a ...