It is a recurring theme in Legal Business commentary that the received wisdom and forecasting for the profession do not age like fine wine and 2016 is proof once more that no one knows anything. Take the Bar, which has supposedly been in the last-chance saloon for a generation and yet in the commercial sector keeps thriving.
Continue reading “As the Bar elite thrives, New Law wobbles – scratch some more predictions”
New entrants to the legal profession will be competing head on against Kim, the virtual assistant from Riverview Law, and Ross, IBM Watson’s ‘super-intelligent’ attorney, in delivering services to clients. Ross, unlike most of us, has the ability to research every resource of legal knowledge in seconds, and, even more impressive to the older ones among us, remember it.
Sheffield City Council is targeting the UK’s top 100 law firms in a bid to entice them to establish offices in its business hub.
Continue reading “Sheffield reaches out to Magic Circle with northshoring campaign”
This response to the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s (SRA) Consultation on training tomorrow’s solicitors is a personal one. I am afraid this will not make a great deal of sense to those of you not familiar with the proposals, my apologies in advance.
Continue reading “Guest post: Why the SRA’s education reforms inhibit innovation”
In the largest New Law merger to date, the UK’s biggest freelance lawyer service Lawyers On Demand (LOD) has sealed a deal with Australia’s AdventBalance to create a £25m business.
After spending the last 18 months investing in automated services for in-house teams, Riverview Law has created a virtual assistant to help legal teams make ‘quicker and better decisions’.
From time to time, I am asked to talk at panels and conferences. Though I usually weasel out of such commitments on account of deadlines looming threateningly over my head, I did recently agree to a one-on-one discussion with the senior partner of a mid-tier UK player at the firm’s partnership conference. Continue reading “Comment: What I (very roughly) said about the future of law for the quality mid-pack player”
DLA Piper has ramped up its low-cost services offering, opening a centre in Warsaw and eyeing Asia for a fourth base across the globe.
Continue reading “Asia next target for DLA as it launches third low-cost centre in Warsaw”
Following the success of its high-end contract lawyer service Peerpoint in London, Allen & Overy (A&O) is now extending the model to Asia.
In-house lawyers have been notoriously slow to embrace the tech-backed delivery of legal services, but Legal Business research drawing on responses from more than 600 global clients shows many believe technology will transform the way they work.
