Month: July 2021

Professional jobs are on the up, but the lack of diversity is stalling progression in professional services. Hybrid and flexible working could provide an opportunity to change the current status quo in the legal profession, according to the Law Society of England and Wales.  The Social Mobility Commission’s state of the nation report 2021 found […]Read More

Central London law firm Bishop & Sewell has appointed law technology specialist Access Legal, a division of The Access Group, as it continues to focus on its three key principles – Purpose, People and Pathway. The 110-strong firm has ambitions to not only be an independent top 100 law firm, but to also be ranked […]Read More

Our ‘Technical Corner’ brings you information that will help you to continue to grow and develop in your career. This month’s technical corner article comes from Amy Bell, Director at Teal Compliance If you have any questions for our panel of experts, please submit them to [email protected] We will publish the questions and answers where […]Read More

The fines levied by the SRA on 13 firms in recent weeks continue to demonstrate a fundamental lack of understanding around responsibilities when it comes to the money laundering regulations. The firms in question had failed to comply with their procedural responsibilities to provide their firm-wide AML risk assessment and delayed their AML declarations. In […]Read More

The latest statistics from the Ministry of Justice show that disputes regarding the arrangements for children following their parents’ separation are now taking an average of 40 weeks to resolve; a startling rise of 35% compared to the same period 12 months ago (29.9 weeks for cases issued in Q1 2020). It is easy to […]Read More

The House of Commons Justice Committee has published published its latest report on the Future of Legal Aid In its latest report, the Justice Committee discusses the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) removal of private family law from the scope of legal aid and highlights the importance of early legal […]Read More

A major independent study into innovation in the legal sector has revealed that while the majority of law firms are making increasing use of day-to-day technology, the development of bespoke legal technology is largely focussed on advances which will benefit larger corporate clients. The research carried out by the University of Oxford on behalf of […]Read More

Whilst complex and sophisticated cybercrime stories continue to make all the headlines on personal data theft, experts warn that the risks to our personal privacy are often much closer to home. In fact, right inside our home. The risk of becoming a victim of covert eavesdropping increases at certain times too, particularly when timely information […]Read More

Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has announced a major shake-up of the Competition and Markets Authority’s powers.  The CMA has been instrumental in the drive toward greater pricing transparency for consumers and more recently has intervened in the leasehold ground rents scandal that has resulted in Aviva and Persimmon Homes announcing they would remove certain terms […]Read More

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has published its annual reports on its operational work during 2019/20. The reports cover areas such as its regulatory role, preventing money laundering, and enforcement. Key facts highlighted within these reports include: 23% increase in the number of solicitors who hold a practicing certificate in the last decade £10.4 million […]Read More

The Legal Services Board has published a response to the submissions it received to its discussion paper on quality indicators. Published in February 2021, the paper prompted a wide-ranging debate over what quality means in the legal services market and how best to convey this to consumers. The response document concludes that there is still […]Read More

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has launched formal enforcement cases against Amazon and Google in relation to possible breaches of consumer protection law. The CMA has concerns that Amazon and Google have not been doing enough to tackle fake reviews on their sites. This comes following an initial CMA investigation in May 2020 to […]Read More

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has issued fines to seven practices that have failed to comply with anti-money laundering (AML) requirements. The firms affected are Manchester practice Law Together LLP, Telford-based Picasso Legal Limited, Smooth Law Limited in St Helens, Manchester practice AB Corporate LLP, Devon firm Hole & Pugsley, Crawford & Company Legal Services Limited […]Read More

Over three-quarters of people found their divorce stressful while a quarter wished they’d chosen another way to end their marriage, a new report has found as part of Irwin Mitchell’s campaign to do divorce differently. The survey by OnePoll polled 1,000 divorcees about their experience getting divorced, and whether their relationship ending had been an […]Read More

The discordant and disproportionate ways the criminal law, private law children and public law children systems treat domestic abuse The criminal law, private law children, and public law children systems treat domestic abuse cases and those embroiled in them, including children, in discordant and disproportionate ways. I was struck by this thought when writing a […]Read More

The government has confirmed that the legal requirement for social distancing in England will be removed from Monday 19 July 2021, as well as the detail of which other aspects of step 4 on the roadmap will be adopted. In Wales, meanwhile, it is hoped most restrictions will be lifted on 7 August 2021. In […]Read More

Draft plans brought forward have proposed that co-habiting couples with children could become eligible for bereavement support in the event of their spouse’s death. Department for Work and Pensions minister, Baroness Stedman-Scott will set out plans to extend bereavement support to cohabiting couples with children. Widowed Parent’s Allowance and Bereavement Support Payments will be extended […]Read More

Access Legal has released new research that is encouraging law firms to review gaps in their compliance, given over two thirds plan to switch to a permanent hybrid way of working once restrictions ease. The legal technology division of The Access Group surveyed a substantial number of law firms and found that 85 per cent […]Read More

Cafcass demand has increased significantly resulting in the second highest June figures recorded, but care applications have decreased and open outstanding cases are reducing slowly. Last month, the children and family courts service (Cafcass) received 5,463 new cases, a 2.6% increase from June 2020 and an 11.9% increase from May 2021. Total demand has increased […]Read More

Just 1% of England and Wales’s judiciary is Black – a figure that hasn’t shifted since 2014 despite an increasingly diverse pool of applicants, according to official figures. Across all appointment rounds for legal judicial positions in 2018-2021, Black, Asian and minority ethnic candidates together constituted 23% of applications but only 12% of recommendations for […]Read More