Modern Law Magazine Issue 22

The Business of Law

February 2016 | Issue 22 | ISSN 2050-5744 Jonathon Bray Talks News: Rapid change at the regulatory level will quickly filter down to firms and their Compliance Officers for implementation, as Jonathon Bray explains.

Efficiency and profitability: Maxine Park explains why law firms are turning to cosourcing, which offers the same benefits as outsourcing, but with greater control and guaranteed service levels.

“The SRA have... created a minefield in which a spirit of ‘let’s wait and see’, is undoubtedly thriving, if not prevailing” Charles Peter, DataLaw

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Welcome W

elcome to the first 2016 edition of Modern Law, I hope you all had a restful Christmas break and are looking forward to what the New Year has in store. In this issue, I speak to Steve Green, the Chair of the Office for Legal Complaints (OLC) - the board that oversees the Legal Ombudsman (LeO) – about the impact of recent events on LeO’s reputation as a complaints handler and professional body, what the OLC are doing to rebuild that reputation, and why they will be focussing on quality rather than speed, moving forwards. Read the full interview with Steve from page 12 onwards.

In light of the SRAs decision to alter CPD training requirements, which officially comes into force in November this year, I spoke to Charles Peter, CEO of Datalaw, about the possible ramifications of the changes, and whether the front line regulators are creating a minefield with their decision to hand responsibility for training back to professionals (read the full interview from page 17).

The regulation of legal services continues to be a topic on everyone’s lips and this is not expected to slow down this year. High on the agenda is whether the SRA will be granted their wish to become a regulator independent of the Legal Services Board (LSB). Paul Philip, Chief Executive of the SRA, sets out the case for independent regulation on page 23.

This issue also includes the fifth instalment of our popular Regional Focus feature, which concentrates on the last of the Joint V Law Societies, Bristol. I spoke to the President, John Moriarty, about assisting members in the Bristol region with business and management knowledge, and why he is optimistic about the future of the legal profession in Bristol and beyond (page 54-55).

For more information on our upcoming events (detailed below), please get in touch with ellie.campbell@ charltongrant.co.uk, and for sponsorship opportunities, contact martin@charltongrant.co.uk. Alternatively, call 01765 600909.

I hope you enjoy reading this issue of Modern Law and if you have any comments or suggestions for a future issue, I’d love to hear from you. Please get in touch with me via the details below. Happy Reading!

Charlotte Parkinson, Group Editor, Modern Law Magazine.

01765 600909 | charlotte.parkinson@charltongrant.co.uk @modernchar

Dates for your Diary: Modern Law Conference | Tuesday 14th June 2016 | Old Trafford, Manchester United Modern Law Conveyancing Awards | Thursday 14th July 2016 | The Rum Warehouse, Liverpool

Modern Law Magazine

Issue 22 – February 2016 | ISSN 2050-5744

Project Director Kate McKittrick

Group Editor Charlotte Parkinson

Project Manager Rachael Pearson

Events Director Julia Todd

Production/Editorial Assistant Ebony Lawson

Project Manager John Margett

Events Sales Martin Smith

Modern Law Magazine is published

by Charlton Grant Ltd ©2016.

Contact t: 01765 600909 or e: info@modernlawmagazine.com Modern Law Events: www.modernlawevents.co.uk Modern Law Awards: www.modernlawawards.co.uk All material is copyrighted both written and illustrated. Reproduction in part or whole is strictly forbidden without the written permission of the publisher. All images and information is collated from extensive research and along with advertisements is published in good faith. Although the author and publisher have made every effort to ensure that the information in this publication was correct at press time, the author and publisher do not assume and hereby disclaim any liability to any party for any loss, damage, or disruption caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions result from negligence, accident, or any other cause.

ML // February 2016

04

CONTENTS 03-08 Intro & THE News

07 Jonathon Bray talks news

Compliance: hold on to your hat. 2016 promises to be especially busy in the risk and compliance world. Rapid change at the regulatory level will quickly filter down to firms and their Compliance Officers for implementation, as Jonathon Bray explains.

11-20 The INTERVIEWS 12 Interview with...Steve Green

Charlotte Parkinson spoke to the Chair of the Office for Legal Complaints (OLC) - the board that oversees the Legal Ombudsman (LeO) - about rebuilding a reputation marred with the profession, and refocusing the organisation to centre on quality of service moving forwards.

17 Interview with...Charles Peter

In light of the Solicitors Regulation Authorities (SRA’s) decision to alter training and CPD requirements for solicitors, Charlotte Parkinson, Modern Law spoke to the CEO of Datalaw about the possible ramifications of the changes, and whether the front line regulators are creating a minefield.

07

21-48 The views

23 Big topics in a big year

Paul Philip, Chief Executive, Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA)

25 Managing Technology Assets

Steve Arundale, NatWest/RBS

25 Raising the game

Lisa Beale, Checkaprofessional.com

27 Embracing the Business of Law

17

Ross Weldon, Clio

27 Attitudes are changing - everything I need, nothing I don’t

Scott Bozinis, InfoTrack

29 Balancing new initiatives

Richard Burcher, Burcher Jennings

29 Protecting your clients from hidden risks

Erica Willmott, Conveyancing Data Services

31 Time to take stock

Andy Poole, Armstrong Watson

31 The myth of the full service law firm

David Simon, Triton Global

35 Taking care of your needs

Jasvinder Jhumat, alldayPA Legal

23

Editorial Columnists Angelo Piccirillo Senior Parnter AVRillo Solicitors

Ian McNally Director Saunderson House

Matthew Williams Head AmTrust Law

Ross Weldon Marketing Specialist Clio EMEA

Andy Poole Legal Sector Partner Armstrong Watson

Jasvinder Jhumat Head of Corporate Business alldayPA Legal

Maxine Park Co-Director and Co Founder Dictate Now

Scott Bozinis CEO InfoTrack

Catherine Calder Solicitor & Director of Client Care Serjeants’ Inn Chambers

Joanne Cracknell Business Development Manager Willis Towers Watson

Noel Inge Managing Director CILEx Law School

Stephen Robinson Managing Director Xyone Cyber Security

Charles Christian Editor-in-Chief The Legal IT Insider

Jo Hodges Director of Sales & Marketing Redbrick Solutions

Paul Philip Chief Executive Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA)

Darren Gower Marketing Director Eclipse Legal Systems part of Capita plc

Lesley Graves Managing Director Citadel Law

Richard Burcher Chairman Burcher Jennings

Steve Arundale Commercial Head of Professional Services & Financial Institutions, Sectors & Specialist Business RBS & NatWest Commercial & Private Banking

David Simon Chairman Triton Global

Lisa Beale Head Checkaprofessional.com

Richard Rickwood Managing Director Fitzalan Partners

Erica Willmott Marketing Assistant Conveyancing Data Services

Matthew Claughton Managing Director Olliers Solicitors

Robert Bishop Business Development Manager VFS Legal Funding

ML // February 2016

Sucheet Amin Managing Director Aequitas Legal & Founder of inCase™ Zoe Holland Managing Director Zebra Legal Consulting

05

51-58 The Features

35 Is this the end of pension saving as we know it?

Ian McNally, Saunderson House

37 A tailored approach

Robert Bishop, VFS Legal

51 Fourth Money Laundering Directive - What you need to know

37 The Power in their hands

Sucheet Amin, Aequitas Legal & inCase™

39 Your firms New Year’s Resolution

Joanne Cracknell, Willis Towers Watson

39 High on the agenda

52 Law firms drive efficiency and

profitability through co-sourcing

Zoe Holland, ZebraLC

41 Will 2016 see criminal defence firms go paper free?

Matthew Claughton, Olliers Solicitors

41 Genuine commitment

Angelo Piccirillo, AVRillo

Stephen Robinson, Xyone Cyber Security

43 Good news for the industry

Jo Hodges, Redbrick Solutions

45 Q. I gather recoverability of

ATE premiums in insolvency proceedings is ending. What should I do?

45 Celebrating the past and changing

Catherine Calder, Serjeants’ Inn Chambers

47 Looking Forward: the Future of

Conveyancing

Richard Rickwood, Managing Director, Fitzalan Partners

29

In the fifth instalment of Modern Law’s regional focus, Charlotte Parkinson, Modern Law spoke to the President of Bristol Law Society, about assisting members with business and management knowledge, and why he is optimistic about the future of the legal profession in Bristol and beyond.

57 Danger! Unfriendly UX

Matthew Williams, AmTrust Law

the future

Maxine Park, solicitor and co-founder of leading digital dictation and transcription service provider DictateNow, explains why law firms are turning to co-sourcing, which offers the same benefits as outsourcing, but with greater control and guaranteed service levels.

54 Regional Focus: Bristol

43 Cracking down on Cyber Security

The European Union’s Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive came into force on 26 June 2015. Yehuda Solomont from VinciWorks explains what this means for law firms.

Our Resident IT Guru Charles Christian explains the dangers of an unfriendly User Experience and outlines what technology providers could learn from Facebook.

43

58 5 minutes with... Anthony Hughes 58 Eclipse expands to the Caribbean

Government of the British Virgin Islands to implement Proclaim Case Management

47 Flooding – Facts, Figures, Flood Re and the Future

Future Climate Info

49 The leaders of the future

Noel Inge, CILEx Law School

49 A national scandal

Lesley Graves, Citadel Law

52 ML // February 2016

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Jonathon Bray Talks News

07

Jonathon Bray

talks news

Compliance: hold on to your hat. 2016 promises to be especially busy in the risk and compliance world. Rapid change at the regulatory level will quickly filter down to firms and their Compliance Officers for implementation, as Jonathon Bray explains.

W

e will be bombarded with consultations over the next year.

The SRA will consult on an entirely new rulebook, despite the current one being less than five years old. The target seems to be to produce to a Handbook of 50 pages, which would involve a huge reduction in detail and - some would argue - certainty for the profession.

The ‘indicative behaviours’ in the current Code of Conduct are likely to be first in the firing line, and the Accounts Rules will almost certainly be redrafted to come into line with the SRA’s ‘outcomes-focused’ approach to rule-making. The SRA will also push on with its proposals to reform PII and introduce third party client accounts, despite serious reservations from several observers.

Response rates to consultations tend to be pretty low, so if you do have strong opinions about any of these developments, take some time to let the regulator know your thoughts.

There is a good chance that your voice will at least be heard.

Removal of red tape?

There are also plans to withdraw the restriction on solicitors practicing in unregulated businesses, which is consistent with the removal of the separate business rules last November. So long as certain safeguards are in place, the rules now permit solicitors to have links with unregulated legal businesses, such as will writing companies. However, as things stand, a solicitor’s role in these separate businesses would be restricted to ownership, management or ‘inhouse’ legal work, hence the additional proposals.

This is all supposed to level the playing field for solicitors in a world where a significant proportion of legal services can be provided in the unregulated sector, and competition

‘Solicitors continue to face plenty of compliance hurdles to overcome on a daily basis, and the position is unlikely to get any better soon’ from ABSs, accountants, legal executives etc. is getting stiffer all the time. Interesting times indeed – and plenty of opportunity for those with an entrepreneurial spirit.

But let’s not get carried away. These are steps that the SRA has to take in order to stay on the right side of the Legal Services Board. Solicitors continue to face plenty of compliance hurdles to overcome on a daily basis, and the position is unlikely to get any better soon.

Bye-bye CPD Don’t forget that CPD is being put

out to pasture in November 2016, and being replaced by ‘continuing competence’. But don’t go slashing training budgets just yet. If anything, under the new regime staff training and development will become a more integral part of the overall compliance picture. The SRA directly links continuing competence with Principle 5 (‘You must provide a proper standard of service to your clients’) and it is ultimately therefore an additional burden for COLPs. Most firms have yet to turn their minds to this fundamental shift in

ML // February 2016

08

Jonathon Bray Talks News

emphasis from a quantitative hours-based system, to a qualitative system of self-reflection and evaluation. The new regime will mean that you will need to fundamentally reorganise the way that training and development is managed. Burying your head in the sand and saying “we’ll just keep the 16 hours going” is simply not going to cut it.

Do yourself a favour and don’t leave it until October. You should be making moves towards the new system already.

Money laundering is not going away Money laundering is a core component of every firm’s compliance. With an estimated £10 billion of illicit funds passing through the regulated sector every year, and an impending visit from the Financial Action Task Force, it comes as no surprise that the SRA views money laundering as a ‘priority risk’. (If you have not read the 2015/16 Risk Outlook, go and do that next).

A recent SRA money laundering review is expected to report that, whilst compliance with the Money Laundering Regulations is generally good, there are some firms with significant gaps in AML training and resources, particularly for the MLRO. In addition, the 4th Money Laundering Directive is due to come into force in the UK by June 2017. Amongst other things, it will place more emphasis on risk assessment, identifying beneficial owners, and it expands the definition of PEPs. For most firms, this will mean more training and revisiting AML systems, policies and procedures. Seeing as the changes are now widely known, it would make sense to get ahead of the curve and start that planning process now.

Data protection legislation is changing Data protection compliance is an express requirement of the Code of Conduct, and from experience, it is a weak point for many firms. The pace of technological change, such as the switch to mobile working and cloud services, can make for a dizzying compliance requirement. We have moved on from simply being concerned about sending an email to the wrong person or leaving files in the car.

The data protection legislation itself is also due for a significant overhaul. This will involve stricter rules on reporting data losses to the ICO, new data protection principles, new definitions of personal data, and a focus on transparency and consent. Firms will need to think ahead and plan for the changes. For many, a fundamental review of how (and where) the firm holds and processes data will be long overdue. Sorry, COLPs. Take care with unbundled services The Legal Services Board is keen for firms to concentrate on meeting ‘unmet demand’ for legal services. One way to do that is to increase the availability of unbundled services – limited retainers where the solicitor’s input is limited to a small part of the overall work. Most core services like drafting, advocacy, advising and negotiating could be offered on an unbundled basis, a strategy that could sit well within a broader online offering.

Of course, this poses very particular risks to firms – not least unwittingly entering into a full retainer with the client.

Fortunately, the courts have recently calmed a few nerves by reaffirming the position that a solicitor does not owe their client a professional duty beyond the scope of a limited retainer.

If you do intend to go down the unbundling route, you need to carefully map out the process, identify all the risk areas and put in place appropriate safeguards.

ML // February 2016

‘The new regime will mean that you will need to fundamentally reorganise the way that training and development is managed’ Cyber-crime and fraud is getting ridiculous Not a week goes past without reports of frauds against solicitors, and the profession is clearly seen as a soft target.

Attacking client accounts now seems to be turning into an industry in its own right. The scams themselves are getting ever more sophisticated to the point where the regulators, law enforcement and insurance industry are all clearly worried, each issuing its own guidance for staying safe.

It’s not just theft of client money either. Non-financial assets, such as the sensitive data that lawyers hold for their clients, are also at risk from hackers. We predict that 2016 will see at least one significant law firm data theft. Added to this, firms are under increasing risk of cloning and identity theft. Scammers are able to clone a legitimate website at will, directing their victims to the fake version as part of a larger confidence scam.

Hackers have also proved adept at installing malicious software onto vulnerable computer systems, holding countless law firms to ransom under threat of destruction of data. These are potentially catastrophic risks for any firm and the fact that IT security is beyond the expertise of most lawyers makes matters worse. We are convinced that given the level of fraudulent activity, every firm should invest in fraud training and should audit their IT security, buying in expertise if required.

Reducing the compliance burden Ensuring a firm is compliant with the maze of regulation can be a daunting task. It is also expensive, with most fee-earning COLPs spending around 25% of their time on compliance work. There are some relatively straightforward steps most firms can take to significantly improve their regulatory compliance and approach to risk management, although every firm is different and requires a customised approach. There are specialists out there, including us, who can help you to pinpoint where your weak points are and take remedial action.

Policies and procedures are a part of the picture but they are too often seen as the be-all-and-end-all of compliance.

That is a really dangerous position to take, not least because even the most fantastically drafted policy is worthless if no one follows it. We approach compliance projects by taking away as much of the heavy lifting as possible, putting in place a clear structure to risk management and an audit trail.

Our aim is to readdress the balance between the COLP and COFA’s lawyering and compliance roles.

When was your last MOT? If you were to do one thing at the beginning of 2016, it should be to undertake a compliance ‘health check’. Annual audit can be a critical part of a risk management system, and the regulator and insurers certainly see it as a valuable exercise. Some firms do this in-house, although there are obvious advantages to appointing an independent adviser.

Make this your first step towards compliance this year.

Jonathon Bray is a former solicitor whose company specialises in compliance support and ABS applications.

Visit www.jonathonbray.com to find out more.

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11-20

The Interviews

12

Interview with... Steve Green

Interview with...

Steve Green Charlotte Parkinson spoke to the Chair of the Office for Legal Complaints (OLC) - the board that oversees the Legal Ombudsman (LeO) - about rebuilding a reputation marred with the profession, and refocusing the organisation to centre on quality of service moving forwards.

Q

Your professional background was in the Army and Police, and also as an inaugural member of the LSB (Legal Services Board), helping to establish the OLC. Why did you want to return to take the position as Chair of the OLC?

A

There are two key reasons. I have been a public servant all of my working life and I believe in the power of public service.

As a public servant, I want to do everything in my power to make the world a better place and in 40 years of doing this, I have not lost my energy and desire. Secondly, through all my time as a Police Officer and in more recent years on the LSB board (although I am not a lawyer), I have a huge insight into the workings of the legal profession because of my working background. Having dealt with lawyers as individuals, I have a huge respect for the professional standards and commitment they work to. When helping to establish the LSB, I gained a strong understanding of the institutions that support the legal profession and of the Legal Services Act (LSA). Although the LSA is (overall) a force for good, there are compromises, which were designed to make it work. Whilst it has improved the situation for the profession and the public, sooner or later it will be revisited and I am keen to be part of that debate.

Q A

What are your priorities as Chair of the OLC?

As I was taking over this role, there were a number of legacy issues to deal with, which arose out of when the Legal Ombudsman was established. These issues were around how LeO functioned as a public

ML // February 2016

body, as well as how it controlled its spending of public money. It has required a huge amount of work to get to the bottom of those issues and amend them, but putting them right has had to be the top of my priority list because otherwise the standards of the organisation are undermined. LeO is also still a relatively new public body, and it did have a relatively good start in terms of delivering an Ombudsman service. We now need to focus on bringing it to maturity and ensuring all the basic processes that should exist in a fully accountable public body are fully functioning. It is so important that systems and processes exist and do not have to be implemented from scratch every time something needs doing. To some degree, this requires investment but it is also about culture and ensuring people operate with the right mindset and putting the right leadership in place. The way we receive, investigate

whether the public are sufficiently aware of us and if we are making enough impact on the suppliers of claims management services, and working with the regulators effectively.

Until we are satisfied that everything is as good as it can be, it will stay on our list of priorities. Finally, whilst everyone who uses a regulated legal service has a right to come to us, we would like to develop our service so that everyone who uses legal services (either regulated or non-regulated) is able to come to LeO. This would be much fairer for all consumers across the spectrum, although there is a lot to do to make that happen. The only possible source of funding would have to come from our parent company, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ). In the current financial market, that would be a very difficult question to ask them and we need to get our own house in order before having those discussions.

‘Whilst [the LSA] has improved the situation for the profession and the public, sooner or later it will be revisited and I am keen to be part of that debate’ and determine complaints in essence, hasn’t changed, although we have been looking closely at our processes (specifically how we investigate complaints and how we measure our own performance), to learn the lessons and make the service we provide, better. It would take a genius to set up everything perfectly on day one and whilst the service was sound, it was not perfect and we are improving it.

The next priority is to embed the new CMC jurisdiction, which we are pleased with so far. We are constantly asking

Q

I recently attended your event held in conjunction with the LSB, Legal Services Consumer Panel (LSCP) and Leeds Law Society. How is the OLC working collaboratively with these organisations?

A

We have a good relationship and it is helpful that we all derived from the same Act and were established at the same time. It would be remarkable (and unhealthy) if we all agreed on the same things all

Interview with... Steve Green

13

Steve Green Steve started off his professional life in the Army before moving to the police and ultimately serving for eight years as Chief Constable of Nottinghamshire Police. Since leaving the police he has also undertaken a number of non-executive and voluntary roles. the time but we do fundamentally agree that we can achieve more if we all work together, rather than all exerting our independence from one another. We have memorandums of understanding with the LSB and LSCP and work together on projects of mutual interest, and myself and the Chairman of the LSB, Sir Michael Pitt, meet on a (at least) quarterly basis to ensure we are working collaboratively together. We recognise our separate responsibilities and accountabilities, but also that the profession and public benefit from collaboration.

Q A

Can you outline the new performance plan the OLC will be putting in place in April 2016?

When LeO was set up in 2010, its performance aims were to be ‘Faster, Cheaper and Better’ than the previous organisation. As a set of start up aspirations, these goals were adequate but over time, the ‘Faster’ element became more important than the quality of our investigations. Myself and the team felt uneasy that we were out of balance so we have been working to strengthen the quality of our investigations over the last 12 months. The most symbolic change is that, once a case is received, an Ombudsman is involved from a much earlier stage in the investigation, so a decision can be made on the merits of the case and the likely outcome, earlier. This method also gives the law firm and consumer a much clearer view on the result of their case, sooner. We have increased the number of Ombudsman to do this and although the overall process is now slower, the quality is vastly improving. We have also implemented a more structured case review process, around quality and the outcome, and we regularly conduct quality reviews. If any issues are detected with cases, they

Steve was an inaugural member of the Legal Services Board where he took a lead role on the board in setting up the Office for Legal Complaints (OLC) and the Legal Ombudsman. He chaired the board’s Audit and Risk Committee and he was the lead member of the Board with responsibility for monitoring the performance of the OLC. Throughout this time Steve has been a passionate advocate for the legal services reform agenda and the need to improve the way the legal market works for consumers.

Steve’s term of Chair began on 1 April 2014.

‘We have been looking closely at our processes (specifically how we investigate complaints and how we measure our own performance), to learn the lessons and make the service we provide, better’ ML // February 2016

14

Interview with... Steve Green

‘We now survey the users of our service at interim stages during the complaints process, which allows us to gain much more objective feedback about how they are being treated, without the blurring influence of the outcome’ are addressed by one of the Senior Ombudsman. Obtaining genuine insight into the quality of what we do is also hugely important and the previous method was too static. The people we surveyed who had had a successful outcome were largely satisfied with the service, and the people who had not had a successful outcome broadly were not as happy, as we surveyed people at the end of the process. We now survey the users of our service at interim stages during the complaints process, which allows us to gain much more objective feedback about how they are being treated, without the blurring influence of the outcome. We have also devised a new set of performance indicators, to support the emphasis on quality and have retracted slightly on the targets we had set. As an example, we were initially aiming to settle 70 per cent of cases within 90 days, and this will be reduced to 60 per cent from April this year.

ML // February 2016

Q A

Why did the OLC decide that it will not proceed with an application to become an ADR

entity?

There is complexity in trying to reconcile the expectations of stakeholders around the statutory scheme that we currently operate with the requirement of the ADR regulations. Particularly around time limitations, as the ADR regulation requirement would not allow us to use those rules in that way. When we consulted on this with stakeholders, myself and my board were uneasy about making fundamental changes to our current scheme, in order to make ourselves compliant with the ADR regulations. It would also have meant making more changes to the quality drivers we want to implement at a time when we are trying to drive up our performance. We all felt that trying to adapt our whole scheme to

be ADR compliant was a step too far at this stage. There are other statutory Ombudsman schemes in other sectors which changed their whole statutory scheme to be ADR compliant and have run an ADR scheme in parallel to their existing scheme. We also need to consider whether we are capable of developing other methods of dispute resolution, such as mediation. We are not saying never and will be revisiting this in 6 months time.

Q A

How will the OLC work to reduce the cost of cases and why hasn’t LeO been achieving targets in this regard?

Our current cost per case measure is very simplistic and is being determined by taking the total cost of the organisation and dividing it by the number of cases we investigate. In order to set a target for the year, we need to accurately

Interview with... Steve Green

15

‘Our business process for claims management is different to the process for legal, partly because the process is simpler for CMC’s and partly because we wanted to innovate and try new things, and this process is welcomed by the MoJ’ forecast what our demand is going to be in the following year and hope that our resource planning matches it. The actual cost of our service is falling and has continued to fall year on year, so the idea we are more expensive than we should be doesn’t stack up against the absolute cost data. The number of cases we are investigating has gone down – the number of cases in 2014/15 was 7,440, but it is likely to be around 6,500 for 2015/16. If there are fewer cases, but the same costs base, then the cost per case goes up. We are looking to develop more sensible costs per case measures and will always be transparent about the absolute cost of our service, so that people can see we are not increasing our spending and are working to reduce it.

Q A

Has the nature of consumer complaints changed in the 5 years since LeO has been in operation and if so, why?

Fundamentally not. The two ‘big ticket’ areas of law in complaints terms are Conveyancing and Family Law. Whilst Family Law complaints have gone down, Conveyancing complaints have gone up. Family Law has been impacted by Legal Aid and Conveyancing by the resurgence of the economy. Regardless of those trends, those areas of law have consistently been the largest areas for complaints.

Closely followed by Personal Injury, and Wills and Probate, although the proportions have changed slightly.

Q A

How is LeO dealing with handling CMC complaints, has there been more complaints than expected to date?

We have been extremely pleased with the way that scheme has been set up and is operating. We receive an average of 1,650 contacts from the public each month about CMC related matters. In the first nine months, we turned those contacts into 1,325 investigations.

Because of the uniqueness of this service, it was difficult to make credible predictions, the volume was less than was expected, although the trend is upwards. In November and December 2015, there was a significant spike in the number of investigations that we initiated. This was driven by the MoJ’s intervention into one of the large claims management companies.

That placed our system under some strain and it proved to be robust and able to deal with it. Our business process for claims management is different to the process for legal, partly because the process is simpler for CMC’s and partly because we wanted to innovate and try new things, and this process is welcomed by the MoJ.

Q A

Why did the OLC decide to separate the roles of Chief Executive and Chief Ombudsman at LeO?

The rationale was simple.

We need to address our legacy issues and establish our credibility as a responsible and accountable public body. We therefore needed someone with the highest level of Chief Executive skills, and also the best Chief Ombudsman we could find. Our judgement was that finding both of those in one person was a big ask, but we needed both so the logical thing to do was to split the role.

‘It would be impossible to emerge from the last 18 months without having incurred some damage to our reputation and damage to the morale of our staff’

Q A

How have recent events affected LeO’s reputation with the legal profession and consumers?

It would be impossible to emerge from the last 18 months without having incurred some damage to our reputation and damage to the morale of our staff, who have been bemused as they have seen things unfold in front of them. The damage to our reputation is more with the profession, rather than consumers. From here on in, we need to be precious about our reputation and we need to focus on doing what we are doing, based on the quality of the service we provide.

If we adopt that philosophy, the future will take care of itself. Since we were established, we have helped more than 30,000 consumers of legal and claims management services, and it is important to remember that.

Q A

What does the future hold for the OLC board?

The board has to take the biggest responsibility for our reputation moving forward.

We have to set the standards for governments and leadership in the organisation and have to be the critical friend of the LeO service to ensure it delivers, is effective, accountable and makes a difference in the legal marketplace. We are well equipped to do all those things. I would like us to focus more on looking more critically at the influence that we exert in the marketplace. Because of the need to be internally focussed over the last 18 months, we haven’t given enough focus to what is happening in the marketplace and what we should be doing in response to that. What I would like to see is us looking at building that side of our service, so people benefit from using our information and intelligence proactively, and we can make the market better for consumers and the profession.

ML // February 2016

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Interview with... Charles Peter

17

Interview with...

Charles Peter In light of the SRA’s decision to alter training and CPD requirements for solicitors, Charlotte Parkinson, Modern Law spoke to the CEO of Datalaw about the possible ramifications of the changes, and whether the front line regulators are creating a minefield.

Q A

The SRA’s training scheme is scheduled to change on November 1st 2016. What are your views on the new proposals for training/competency requirements?

In order for the new scheme to work properly it will require a complete change in terms of how the legal profession approaches training. As opposed to an expensive inconvenience, there needs to be a sense that you get what you put in. However, are solicitors likely to consider and address their training needs throughout the year when it has become ingrained that this is something which can be left until the last minute each year? There has been more than a raised eyebrow at the SRA’s decision to allow solicitors to self-govern what constitutes suitable training. The SRA has presented the carrot. Now that the SRA no longer accredit providers or courses, any activity can be a suitable means of maintaining your competence, as long as it is documented. But where is the stick? Greater freedom of choice and relaxed regulatory obligations can only yield rewards if there is a clear and equal consequence of non-compliance.

Q A

Will the new scheme bring about the possibility for an increase in professional negligence claims, if so, why?

When the SRA announced their intentions to change CPD, Datalaw made enquiries with several insurance companies to gauge their reaction to the changes and to inquire whether they thought this would have a direct impact on PII claims and insurance premiums. Under the new scheme, there is a concern that older solicitors, and sole practitioners in particular, will not feel that they require any training due to their level of experience. The COLP is likely to be put under considerable strain; not only will they be responsible for monitoring and reporting staff training which is likely to be onerous, they will also be under closer scrutiny in terms of self-reporting. This begs the question, if a COLP is unaware that training needs are not being met; will this result in a breach of their duty? When asked what would happen if an insurance company received notification that a firm intended to make a claim on the basis that a member of staff was unaware of a change in the law for example, it was suggested that while the insurer would be unable to refuse the claim, they may look to seek reimbursement. They may also alter the risk profile of a firm on this basis. I also fear that the new scheme will

‘Now that the SRA no longer accredit providers or courses, any activity can be a suitable means of maintaining your competence, as long as it is documented’ further split the profession according to the under/over four partners divide which is already recognised by insurance companies. It would be naïve to believe that all solicitors will adopt the new training scheme in the spirit in which it was intended, and I would be highly surprised if mistakes are not made as a result of solicitor negligence in respect of their training needs. In this respect, it is difficult not to view the new scheme as potentially dangerous and to contemplate whether the implications have been properly thought through by the regulators.

ML // February 2016

18

Interview with... Charles Peter

‘Under the new scheme, there is a concern that older solicitors, and sole practitioners in particular, will not feel that they require any training due to their level of experience’

Q A

Do you think there is a viable alternative to the SRA’s proposals for continuing professional development?

Like most SRA proposals, there tends to be a grain of a good idea, which is then ruined by lack of forethought and planning. I agree that the SRA needed to encourage solicitors to consider their training and development needs on an on-going basis, as opposed to completing training just for the points; however, I’m not convinced that this is necessarily the right course of action. As the founder of a training company, I might be biased, but I’m concerned by the SRA’s decision to cease accrediting training providers.

We now find ourselves in a situation where the SRA could retrospectively decide that the training undertaken by an individual or firm was not sufficient.

Compare this to a time when solicitors could rely upon SRA accreditation as a benchmark when considering which training providers to use.

Q A

Do you see the proposals as the SRA shifting the responsibly for training on to the profession?

Presented as means to make solicitor’s lives easier and bring training into the 21st century, without any clear parameters of what they expect in addition to their failure to outline the consequences of noncompliance, the SRA have in fact created a minefield in which a spirit of ‘lets wait and see’, is undoubtedly thriving, if not prevailing. There is also an underlying sense, as with all SRA proposals, that after enforcing change which no one really wanted, given time, the system will ultimately revert back to the way it was. I’m not saying that the old system wasn’t broken, but with a little work on the SRA’s part, in terms of spot-checking and enforcement, I do believe it could have been fixed. This is a stark contrast to the SRA’s new approach, which requires no regulation on their part whatsoever.

Q

What are your views on the SRA’s proposals for a Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE)?

ML // February 2016

A

Whilst I applaud the ambition of the SRA’s proposals; enabling individuals, regardless of the route chosen, to qualify as a solicitor, provided that they can successfully complete an examination designed to demonstrate that all who qualify have a sufficient level of competence, I am sceptical that this is little more than a concept which will be impossible for the SRA to bring to fruition.

Q A

Do you think the training changes could damage the Solicitor Brand?

I think there are two different issues to be addressed; the changes to training and CPD in particular, and the opening up of the profession, including the proposal for a central examination. If you were to ask a member of the public whether they would be happy seeking medical advice from a doctor who was not required to complete a minimum amount of training each year, let alone a doctor who could potentially decide that they did not require any training at all, do you think they would agree? No? Then why would it be any different if the same person required legal advice from a solicitor subject to the same level of self-government?

There is always going to be some level of concern when change occurs and I am aware that many solicitors feel that these changes may dilute the ’solicitor brand’ and undoubtedly their perception of what it means to be a solicitor. However the legal sector needs to move forwards and I am in favour of opening up entry to the profession, although I do think that expectations of prospective solicitors should be more effectively managed.

Q A

Why should CPD be such an integral part of being a professional?

The vast majority of solicitors appreciate the importance of maintaining their competence, as their professional reputation and even their careers depend upon it, however there is now (as there has always been) a reluctance to partake in time consuming exercises such as the reflection of one’s competence if there is no prescribed means through which this information must be presented, and

if there is no guarantee that it will be checked. From my own experience as a practising solicitor and partner in a busy high street family practice, I understand the difficulties which on-going training can present and I too have fallen into the trap of undertaking last minute training for the points. However, until the professions’ approach to training changes, it is all very well and good for a practitioner to identify a training need, but to actually be able to address this need within a reasonable period of time will present a challenge for many, even those with the best of intentions.

Q A

What could the changes mean for consumers?

The legal market has never been more competitive and training is undoubtedly linked to the public’s perception of the profession as a whole. With other professions claiming a share of the legal market, once the sole domain of the solicitor, it is easy to see why the public is unwilling to pay what they consider to be over the odds for the services of a solicitor. As there is already a negative connotation that solicitors are greedy fat cats, and given the current culture that the positive work of the majority can be overlooked as a result of the actions of a few, do we really want to add poorly trained to this perception, however unfounded?

Q A

How is Datalaw approaching the proposals to alter training?

Datalaw has a reputation for not only reacting to but instigating change in the legal training market and we will continue to do so.

The new scheme offers firms plenty of scope to reduce the amount of money spent on traditional training courses, if not avoid this outlay altogether, however I question whether will firms be prepared to spend the required amount of time and energy required to train staff in other more cost effective ways, particularly as many of our existing customers have expressed uncertainty in terms of how to assess their competence under the SRA’s new approach. It is our aim to assist practitioners adjust to the new scheme and to make this transition as easy as possible.

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21

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The Views

23

Big topics in a big year 2016 looks like it will be a big year for regulation and for the profession, as Paul Philip explains.

T

he last two years have seen a range of key regulatory initiatives; initiatives that form a programme of work designed to help firms get on with the business of law while maintaining public protections.

The first big topic for 2016 will be how we shape the way we regulate for years to come. In November, we published a position paper, ‘Looking to the Future’, which sets out our vision for creating a regime that is proportionate and flexible. We want to set out core principles in a very short and accessible handbook, freeing up and trusting solicitors to work in an increasingly innovative legal services market. Our position paper is available on our website and we plan to consult widely in the spring.

Our major “A Question of Trust” campaign from last year has finished its first phase. It focussed on what should happen when things go wrong, through a combination of events, surveys and formal consultation. It captured the imagination of the public and the profession alike, engaging with more than 20,000 people.

‘Our survey of public opinion showed that the vast majority of people prefer independent regulation and would put more trust in solicitors if that was in place’ We believe it is in the public interest that the profession has an effective and expert voice through the Law Society and that regulation is fully independent of both the profession and Government.

Public confidence in the profession is everything. Confidence in the regulation of the profession; confidence that standards have been set independently and that if there is a problem, the issues will be addressed firmly and fairly.

Our survey of public opinion showed that the vast majority of people prefer independent regulation and would put more trust in solicitors if that was in place.

For the first time we have real feedback on how seriously solicitors and the public think solicitors should be dealt with when professional standards are not met. Thank you to all of you who contributed, we will share our findings with you in due course.

A more proportionate approach Similarly, the international standing of law in this country is enhanced by the quality of regulation. It can only strengthen the solicitor brand further if that regulation is fully independent of those who represent solicitors and from the Government.

And of course our Training for Tomorrow programme delivered the widely welcomed Competence Statement.

This sets out the standards we expect of would-be solicitors before they enter the profession and the standards we expect existing practitioners to uphold.

We cannot, of course, regulate in isolation. We want to work closely with the profession, using your insight and knowledge to develop what we do. That is why we have a strong solicitor presence on our Board and meet and listen to the views of the profession week in, week out.

A fairer regime We are now looking ahead to how best to assess aspiring solicitors against these standards. This is the second of the three big topics we will be dealing with in 2016. We are currently out to consultation on our first raft of proposals, looking at the introduction of a new Solicitors Qualifying Examination. I have no doubt this new single assessment will ensure consistently high standards of entry to the profession, regardless of pathway to qualification.

We are clear that a strong and effective representative body is important for the profession and the public, and will be working closely with the Law Society as we consider the proposals.

Finally, at the end of last year, the Government announced it would be consulting on proposals to make legal regulators fully independent of the representative bodies.

The Treasury said that this would “create a fairer, more balanced regulatory regime for England and Wales”, with the focus very much on enhancing the standards of service consumers receive.

These are just the highlights for us as the regulator - there is much more to do besides things you would expect us to be doing, such as making ourselves more effective and more efficient in the way we operate. But still, a big year indeed and one that will put in place the foundations for a new, more proportionate approach to regulation; for ensuring consistent high standards for aspiring solicitors, and for the way we operate.

Paul Philip is Chief Executive of the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA).

ML // February 2016

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The Views

Managing Technology Assets

A

s we head into 2016, early results from our new Benchmarking Report suggest that SME sized firms witnessed a further improvement in revenue of 6% during 2015. This in turn is supporting improved profits and is facilitating the development of technology investment strategies.

A survey for our “A perspective on the legal market” report suggested that across larger firms, 96% believe that IT systems are a source of competitive advantage and technology related spend now represents over 7% of total overhead costs.

Of course, business efficiency is a critical ambition of technology investment delivering improved processing capability, case management, client relationship and financial reporting. Additionally we are now seeing many firms looking to update their systems in order to improve security against cyber attacks with many viewing this as a significant future risk.

There is little doubt that a knowledge based industry will continue to be influenced and shaped by advancement in IT capability and AI is already predicted to have a transformational influence on the way legal services are undertaken in the future.

Against this background, it makes sense for firms to adopt a rolling and integrated approach when it comes to supporting their ongoing technology needs. An approach that needs to maximise the ongoing benefits of a firm’s technology inventory and a programme that: • Ensures that technology investment supports the business strategy.

• Delivers configured and installed systems to support early go forward benefits.

• Is funded in the most cash flow and tax efficient way.

• Manages, maintains and insurers the technology assets.

• Maximises the residual value at the end of the asset lifecycle or disposes of equipment in line with current legislation.

The world will continue to see rapid technological developments and firms will need to continue to invest if they are to innovate, grow and become more successful.

Steve Arundale, Commercial Head of Professional Services, Large Corporates & Sectors, Royal Bank of Scotland/ NatWest, Commercial & Private Banking.

25

Raising the game Just how will Conveyancers ‘raise their game’, as suggested and what does this mean?

I

t was reported at the beginning of the year that Conveyancers need to ‘raise their game’, by a major trade body, although to some, the question is, what is the game? The suggestion of some Solicitors having obstacles to overcome for 2016, due to regulatory changes, which could see a further opening up of the conveyancing market, to make it more consumer friendly.

Making conveyancing more consumer friendly will take quite a major change in the land law, if this is what is being referred to, or is the suggestion more directed to how clients business will be gained in the future and just how will firms deal with their growing needs?

It is expected that the first quarter of 2016 will be a busy one, as those wishing to beat the 3% rise in stamp duty land tax (SDLT), will be pushing business through.

However it should not be left to chance that business will remain as it has been, as doubts about the economy are being reported.

We are all consumers and continuously searching for user friendly experiences, in whatever services we use. As a nation, we have started to get used to making a more informed choice in products and services, so there should be no surprise that this is now expected within many professions, such as Legal Services.

By opening your firm up to client feedback, this is not a negative at all, in fact we have found over the years, as well as providing a consumer friendly way to help them make a choice, it answers questions which sometimes don’t get asked and shows that a firm values its client’s feedback on their service. Showing prospective clients that you are open and want their business, but prepared to show what your clientele have previously experienced, provides transparency, as well as an independent view on your service, which actually aids conversion for you as a business.

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ML // February 2016

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The Views

Embracing the Business of Law How can legal firms and practitioners embrace the ‘business of law’?

L

egal practitioners are trained to excel in many areas, however they are not trained to be experts in running a legal practice, a business in which practicing law is one aspect.

To fully embrace the ‘business of law’, practitioners must be prepared to admit to shortcomings and focus on some key areas to grow their firm.

27

Attitudes are changing - everything I need, nothing I don’t

A

s a human race it’s natural for our attitudes to develop and change. Generally, they change as a result of social factors, learning and experience. They change over time, over generations and there are many examples of changed attitudes, such as how divorce is now socially acceptable or how smoking is socially unacceptable.

Clients Like any other business that excels, the needs of the client should be at the heart of everything a firm does. Building client personas is a great way to achieve this. Define the type of clients you want, demographics, occupation, financial figures and other characteristics. Then focus on understanding their needs, communicating with them to let them know who you are - developing close relationships with them to help them achieve their goals.

One of the biggest changes to our attitudes over the last 20 years is, in my opinion, a result of technology. It’s led to behaviour of ‘instant gratification’ or our need for everything to be easier, faster, more flexible and efficient.

Some may argue that technology has turned humans into a lazy, lethargic species. However, I would counter that it’s a different attitude in that we know there must be a better way to achieve our goals whether that’s at home or at work.

Marketing Build your own personal brand, have the confidence to self-promote engaging in all activities that time will allow; network at events, join boards of local organisations, volunteer your services, write frequently for local publications, blogs and newsletters. Make sure people know who you are and what you do best.

We all now expect to be able to use technology in all aspects of our lives – home, the community and at work – instead of technology existing as an ‘extra’. It’s becoming more prevalent in our everyday lives, acting as an enabler to take care of our everyday lives. Once this is recognised and accepted, it is easier to understand why employing the right technology in the workplace is so essential.

Technology “Uber, the world’s largest taxi company, owns no vehicles.

Facebook, the world’s most popular media owner, creates no content. Alibaba, the most valuable retailer, has no inventory. And Airbnb, the world’s largest accommodation provider, owns no real estate. Something interesting is happening.” - Tom Goodwin, Techcrunch.

It used to be that humans would have to adapt to technology but today, technology is built to adapt to humans. It’s all around us – just think smart thermostats that conserve energy or online shopping sites that tell you what other products you may ‘also like’ or online banking.

Technology is disrupting how business is done and the business of law is no exception. Practice management software is making firms more efficient by giving users everything they need to run a firm in one place, including case management, contacts, documents and billing, cloud services such as Google Drive are making it easier than ever for legal professionals to save, share and collaborate on documents. Advances in mobile technology allow users access to files and time tracking facilities on the go and social networking sites such as LinkedIn - it allows professionals to publish content and build their brand.

As with many other professions, lawyers must embrace technology as one of the greatest tools to differentiate it and gain competitive advantage.

Being a lawyer and being a businessperson are two different things, but legal professionals who are willing to embrace smart business practices are the ones who will leave their competitors in their wake.

We now co-exist with technology and we must adapt together to ensure it’s a natural evolvement. At InfoTrack, our role is to ensure that conveyancers evolve with technology to satisfy the needs of those at the coalface.

Our technology has to continuously adapt to the user rather than the user adapting to our technology.

As an industry, we absolutely must follow the needs of staff by delivering against an attitude of ‘everything I need, and nothing I don’t’. How will we get there? Well, it’s my opinion that we must continue to challenge what’s considered normal practice and evolve, whilst conveyancers need to select a service provider to deliver adaptable technology. It’s all about recognising needs and changing our mind-sets!

Scott Bozinis, CEO, InfoTrack.

For more information please visit our website www.infotrack.co.uk or call us on 020 7922 5777.

Ross Weldon, EMEA Marketing Specialist, Clio.

Noel Inge, Managing Director, CILEx Law School.

ML // February 2016

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The Views

Balancing new initiatives How can legal firms and practitioners embrace the ‘business of law’ in 2016?

T

here is nothing mystical about running a law firm. Certainly, there is an ethical, professional and regulatory framework within which law firms must operate but all too often this is seen as antithetical to treating the law firm as a conventional business.

There are so many initiatives that firms can pursue, the challenge is not lack of awareness or lack of imagination but rather, balancing priorities and deciding which initiatives and projects to implement in which order.

It is useful to categorise these initiatives around five dimensions: • Timeframe (is it something that can be implemented quickly or is it a medium/long-term project?)

• Capital requirement (is the project one that requires little in the way of capital or is it going to be capital intensive?)

• Is it personnel intensive? Is this only going to require a couple of people to implement, or the whole management team, all partners, all fee earners or something else?

• Is the project capable of delivering ‘quick wins’ or will it be a slow burn?

• Is the project intended to generate direct financial benefit (such as a pricing improvement initiative) or indirect benefit (such as a CRM initiative)?

Firms should use this framework to prioritise the various initiatives that are capable of being implemented in order to achieve what for that firm? It is the optimal balance of these five dimensions.

So, what are the major initiatives that firms are engaging in or contemplating? In no particular order they include: • Pricing improvement (pricing governance, and execution).

• Client relationship management (thoughtfully segmented database development and client care programs).

• Financial reporting (much greater insight into profitability measured against office, fee earner, practice group, client and matter).

• Refocus on strengths (strategies to identify and strengthen capabilities by practice area and/or sector and in some cases, to abandon certain areas of work).

• Service levels (serious enquiry into what constitutes service as a differentiator often tied in with client care programs).

• Technology (judicious investment in technology but very importantly, only done so to enhance and augment initiatives, rather than as a substitute for learning new skills i.e. legal project management).

• Marketing & BD reinvented (broadening the scope of their remit to include non-traditional aspects such as involvement in the pricing process).

29

Protecting your clients from hidden risks

I

n 19th century Britain Japanese Knotweed was introduced as an ornamental plant from Asia, however, due to a lack of natural predators in our environment, it didn’t take long for the knotweed to escape from Victorian gardens and begin its destruction through the UK.

May is the start of the Japanese Knotweed growing season where the plant can grow at a rate of up to a metre a month, engulfing any other plant in its path, restricting visibility and increasing the risk of flooding.

The underground stems (Rhizomes) are capable of diving down into the ground to a depth of 3 metres.

It’s extremely strong composition can rupture tarmac, concrete and buildings, causing expensive repairs for the owner of the property and a reduction in land value.

It is estimated that the difficult removal and treatment of Japanese Knotweed costs the UK economy approximately £150 million a year. Japanese Knotweed is not just a threat to residential properties and their house prices, but it can also badly affect the development and maintenance of commercial property, and affect your client’s ability to get a secured loan or insurance.

If your client purchases a commercial property and does have to get the knotweed removed, then the Environment Agency has provided a Code of Practice in respect of the disposal of infested soil on development sites, if this is not followed then this may leave your client open to a possible criminal and or civil sanction. It is also your client’s duty to prevent its escape onto adjoining wild land as a failure to comply could result in a fine and or, an imprisonment for up to two years.

In January 2015, EU regulations came into effect empowering government agencies to issue Control Orders to remove the weed from specified areas, which include derelict sites, construction sites and neighbouring properties, at your clients cost.

Currently there is no legal obligation to declare to anyone (including any potential purchaser) that knotweed is existent on your land. It is therefore imperative that if your client is worried about a potential infestation of Japanese Knotweed on a site they are purchasing, that you carry out a Japanese Knotweed search to enable you to protect your client from the risks.

Erica Willmott, Marketing Executive, Conveyancing Data Services.

Richard Burcher, Chairman, Burcher Jennings.

ML // February 2016

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The Views

Time to take stock The Chancellor has pledged to raise the small claims limit for personal injury claims and to scrap general damages for ‘minor’ soft tissue injuries. What impact could this have?

S

ome may say that this is a result of effective lobbying from the insurance industry, or at least more effective lobbying than that from the legal profession, and that it won’t have the desired impact of reducing insurance premiums. Whatever the merit such assertions may have, the proposal is in line with the clear general direction of travel in this area.

The vast majority of claims from mainstream law firms appear to be related to minor road traffic accidents. The proposed changes could therefore slash the total number of claims at a stroke, and as a by-product, also claims management companies and claimant personal injury (PI) firms. Many firms have already stopped taking cases and stopped recruiting staff.

The proposals appear only to apply to general damages, so it may be possible for claims to continue for loss of earnings or treatment costs. However, it may not be clear at the outset whether that would result in a claim exceeding the £5,000 limit. We may therefore find ourselves in a position where firms do not know whether to accept a case or not.

Firms may be able to continue with other types of more serious claims. We are already seeing a trend of PI firms moving towards clinical negligence (CN). There are risks in doing that, and it may be that CN also goes in the same direction as PI. Following the previous changes to the PI market, we have already been called in to help firms. The repeat instruction has been “Do we continue with PI, and if so, what do we do to make it profitable and generate cash?” In some cases, the answer has been to cease the PI work and to sell the work in progress (WIP). Those instructions are likely to increase further as more firms consider whether this is the final nail in the coffin. As that happens, more firms will look to sell their WIP and the value of the WIP will decrease given increased supply.

Although the changes are only at the proposal stage, an indicator of how strong that proposal is should surely be inferred from the position of the person announcing the proposal. Firms need to be taking stock now and making changes ahead of the game.

31

The myth of the full service law firm How can legal firms and practitioners embrace the ‘business of law’ in 2016?

T

he short answer to the question is: concentrate on what you are good at – and then shape your business to provide a service that YOU understand.

It is notable that every time that there is “bad news” about one of the many forms of ABS, there is a flurry of predictable comments in the on-line media response pages. These are on the lines of “I told you so” and “what happened to our profession?” and yet most of the disaster stories about law firms in the past 10 years have related to (apparently) successful “traditional” partnerships and LLPs. The truth is that all varieties of legal services provider are in the “business of law” and are there to make a profit from their activities, however much they may protest that they are simply seeking to carry on an honourable and historic profession. Is there really a divide between being a professional and being a successful legal entrepreneur?

Government policy hasn’t helped by closing doors on to areas of previously lucrative work for lawyers, either by removing central funding or by tinkering with the rules relating to the costs recoverable in various levels of litigation – personal injury claims, for example. These changes keep hitting the legal services industry one after another and they merely demonstrate that what lawyers have to do is to pick the markets they want to be in and be sufficiently flexible to move themselves and their business into areas they wish to target. Historically, law firms have been slow to move and to adapt. This can be blamed on a culture of entitlement, something which was very much a part of the ethos of being a “professional”.

Being a particular type of lawyer is seen as a lifetime commitment, and both the individual and firm tend to perpetuate the myth, fondly believing that just because there was once a need for that type of lawyer, there must always be a market for such services – the myth of the full service law firm.

David Simon, Chairman, Triton Global.

Andy Poole is the Legal Sector Partner at Armstrong Watson, specialising exclusively in advising law firms. The Law Society has exclusively endorsed Armstrong Watson for the provision of accountancy services to law firms throughout the whole of the North of England.

ML // February 2016

Tuesday 14th June 2016 Manchester United Football Club, Old Trafford “Whether or not you support Manchester United, make sure not to miss the main event of the summer when the Modern Law Conference 2016 fields a top line-up of “premier league” speakers.

In the usual probing Question Time format the conference delegates will hear from four panels explaining how legal businesses in the Regions can succeed in the challenging economic and social climate today. · · · · ·

How can legal businesses in the Regions compete with London? (Birmingham produced the first ABS firm to float).

Does “near shoring” to regional offices make sense?

How important are equality, diversity, human rights and privacy issues for legal businesses and their clients?

How can profitability be maintained for conveyancers and litigators in the face of competition and fixed fees?

Is another Government review of legal services around the corner?

These and many other hot issues of the day will be complemented by a “spark talk” from Manchester United’s Director of Communications.

So don’t miss the kick off and book your place now at the main fixture of the summer season!”

Conference Chairman, Michael Napier CBE QC (Hon)

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Wednesday 15th June 2016 Manchester United Football Club, Old Trafford “2016 will shape the future of the personal injury market place like never before. The immense pressure upon law firms, both claimant and defendant, to re-evaluate their entire practices is going to cause mayhem. Rather than trade insults over a ravine it is time for the industry to come together to argue their points and create a united voice! Tickets are entirely free to solicitors, insurers, brokers and barristers so that we can get all the major stakeholders in one room.”

Joint Conference Chairman, Andrew Twambley, Director, InjuryLawyers4U “Following the Autumn statement 2016 has already produced some excitement, accusations of secret meeting and FOIL breaking ranks with Insurers on the small claims track. This will be an incredibly important year for all involved in the claims process. Nothing is yet decided, it is still possible to influence the final outcome and I would recommend all interested parties to attend the Modern Claims conference where you will hear from all sides of the debate and can contribute yourself to what could be the biggest change in almost 20 years.”

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The Views

Taking care of your needs What are the outsourcing opportunities for Law Firms in 2016 and why should firms consider using these?

T

he legal sector has a number of different opportunities to outsource key functions within their organisations. These include: • Initial drafting of contracts • Legal secretarial services • Proofreading • Research • Document review

• Telephony services • Filing with Companies House • Due diligence • IT support functions • Business process outsourcing.

The SRA has highlighted that the outsourcing of business and legal processes is increasing. One of the reasons for this is the increasingly upward trend of clients contacting law firms outside of their standard business operating hours, both at night and over weekends. Outsourcing of telephony services during ‘out of hours’ periods has become a popular choice for the forward-thinking firm.

With the 24/7 ease of access to goods and services provided on the internet, many clients look to seek legal advice outside of standard business hours. Many firms have taken the decision to outsource not only their firstline customer contact staff but also their IT support and secretarial work, freeing up their core staff to concentrate on what they do best, increase productivity and achieve a suitable work/life balance. Firms save on elevated ‘unsociable hours’ salaries as well as the standard overheads associated with running an office 24/7.

On average, just 12% of callers will leave a voicemail message when they hear an automated system and the majority of those who do not leave a message will not try again and simply move on to the next potential firm. When a firm outsources their call handling requirements, the client receives a prompt and professional greeting from a live human being, not a recorded message on an answer phone, a myriad of options on an IVR (Interactive Voice Response) system or seemingly endless on-hold music. The bottom line is that these firms save on money and resources whilst maintaining a high quality service to the client.

Key indicators to look for when selecting your telephony outsourcing partner include: • A true 24/7/365 real time message relay service • Clear, transparent pricing structure with no hidden charges • A wealth of experience and knowledge within both the legal and call handling sectors • Professionally trained UK-based PA’s • A provider with excellent, honest recommendations (i.e.

TrustPilot) • A wide range of different services to cover all of your potential current (and future) requirements.

35

Is this the end of pension saving as we know it?

Saving for retirement following the pension changes

F

rom 5th April 2016, pension saving as we know it significantly changes; affecting many Saunderson House clients in chambers and within the major law firms.

The annual allowance (AA) for pension contributions tapers down from £40,000 to £10,000 where an individual’s adjusted income is above £150,000. This means that where adjusted income is £210,000 or greater, the AA falls to £10,000 (the minimum). However, unused AA from the previous three tax years can still be used. Further, the lifetime allowance (LTA) is also reducing to £1m from £1.25m from 6 April 2016.

Consequently, not only is very limited tax relief available in the future for pension contributions, future growth above £1m + inflation could be taxed too.

Actions you may wish to consider include getting an up to date valuation of policies then request projections to ascertain whether the reduced LTA might be breached.

If it is likely to be breached, protection can be sought at the current higher LTA and pension contributions ceased, noting that next year’s AA shall be reduced for high earners anyway.

If ongoing pension funding is no longer an option for you, what else? Individuals can invest the maximum each year in ISAs to benefit from tax free growth and future tax free income. Next, invest to utilise the annual capital gains tax exemption and annual dividend allowance of £11,100 and £5,000 respectively for 2016/17.

Insurance bonds are a more expensive way of building up a ‘fund’ for retirement. Although investments benefit from ‘gross roll-up’, bonds defer tax rather than avoid it. Regular savings plans such as MIPs still allow annual contributions of up to £3,600, however there is a commitment to pay premiums for 10 years to enjoy the tax advantages offered.

Individuals with an appetite for greater risk (and corresponding capacity for loss) can obtain 30% income tax relief by investing in Venture Capital Trusts (VCT) and Enterprise Investment Schemes (EIS).

Further diversification can be obtained by investing in Buy to Let properties, but beware the increased stamp duty of 3% on ‘second homes’ and reducing offsetting against mortgage interest from next tax year.

Ian McNally, Director, Saunderson House.

Jasvinder Jhumat, Head of Corporate Business, alldayPA Legal.

ML // February 2016

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The Views

A tailored approach How could the increase in court fees impact law firms, and what options should they be considering to mitigate the impact of the cuts moving forwards?

O

n 9th March 2015, significant increases in the cost of issuing proceedings came into force. The dust is now beginning to settle and we are fully aware of the figures, the maximum at this stage being £10,000 for a claim worth in excess of £200,000. Previously this was £1,300.

Speculation of further increases are also being discussed.

Although the costs are tabled for all to see, this is blurred on areas such as damages being unknown. A case such as this will still attract the maximum £10,000 fee, even though ultimately the damages recovered may be disproportionate.

One potential consequence of enhanced court fees is some businesses will not be able to pursue their disputes through the courts system, leaving them with debts they cannot afford to recover, even if they have genuine claims.

Alternatively, numerous firms may be in the fortunate position of having a strong financial structure, however given the rules of the game have changed, so must the tactics to accommodate this. Prior to the new ruling, a block of 10 cases commanded a maximum of £13,000 in court fees. This figure now stands at £100,000. In any scenario, this will always collate over time to figures that will affect any business.

Court fees are disbursements that are automatically recoverable as part of a successful claim. The downside is that in the interim disbursements are effectively ‘dead money’.

They cannot be utilised once again until the case reaches a conclusion. This has always been a pinch point for law firms and the future is not looking to make this any easier.

To combat this, firms are looking to alternative sources of funding. Gone are the days of traditional capital and interest repayment loans, over a fixed term. They are static and can prove to be very expensive. Law firms require a more tailored approach to suit the needs of the case and its duration.

VFS Legal funding are one of the country’s leading specialist providers of finance into the legal sector. VFS have developed facilities to align the law firms cash flow directly to each case, with our ‘DCF’ (Disbursement Costs Facility) being tailored specifically to assist in these challenging times.

With numerous law firms already benefitting from such a unique structure this is viewed as a testament to its effectiveness.

37

The Power in their hands

T

here is no question that the proposed change to the small claims limit will have a significant impact on access to justice. The main reason being is that there are no safeguards in place to stop advantage being taken of innocent victims whose claims may be worth less than £5,000. There are really two issues. One is the small claims limit and the other is the outright ban of soft tissue injuries.

The latter will require primary legislation and fundamentally removes the right to seek compensation for an injury of this nature. The difficulty will be what constitutes a ‘soft tissue injury’? Clearly, the Government is attacking whiplash-based claims, but this phrase is not limited to such injuries and would include ligament or tendon strains for example.

The second is a more widespread issue and only requires a change in the Civil Procedure Rules. The argument is that the limit has been fixed at this level for a long time and needs updating. Using any number of RPI calculators online, you can work out that the change of £1,000 from April 1999 (introduction of the Woolf Reforms) amounts to a mere £1,573 (www.thisismoney.co.uk). A long way off from £5,000. Of course, the claim will be that damages have increased but again, these have only increased marginally and nowhere near the level of change proposed to be proportionate.

I have no doubt that many law firms will have had a contingency in place. Firms have been charging clients a success fee now for almost 2 years and the impact will simply mean a change in retainer to damages based agreements. The likelihood is that more than 25% will need to be charged and this could be on a sliding scale dependent on the final damages recovered. The end result being that clients receive less compensation than they do today which will pose a question as to whether they will bother to claim at all.

The counter-argument is that victims can make the claim themselves without legal representation. I cannot see how any person is going to be able to detail allegations of negligence, argue liability and/or contributory negligence, ascertain the extent of their injuries, value their claim, argue/evidence other losses such as subrogated rights with their employer, negotiate, issue court proceedings and not least of all, comply with the CPR Protocol subsequent rules around small claims.

When faced with an insurance company with resources and knowledge, the innocent victim will have little choice but to bend to the will of their opponent. For law firms the impact will further consolidate the market. Largescale operators will look to invest further into technology looking at new projects such as AI and ‘self-service’ solutions.

Robert Bishop, Business Development Manager, VFS Legal.

Sucheet Amin, Managing Director, Aequitas Legal & Founder of inCase™.

ML // February 2016

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The Views

Your firms New Year’s Resolution So-called ‘Friday Afternoon Fraud’ is becoming increasingly sophisticated, with fraudsters targeting firms with calls and emails. How can firms make sure they are alive to the risks of all types of fraud in 2016?

T

he New Year brings with it new resolutions. One resolution law firms may benefit from in 2016 is ensuring that all staff receive training and are aware of the various sophisticated techniques being employed by criminals including Friday Afternoon Fraud.

During 2015, the SRA and professional indemnity insurers expressed concern about the increase in reports from law firms, in particular, conveyancing practices, falling victim to sophisticated criminals tricking them into disclosing bank details in scams such as ‘Friday Afternoon Fraud’, and 2016 will be no exception.

The frauds typically take place on a Friday afternoon using a combination of hacking, spear phishing or vishing, when conveyancers are at their busiest dealing with completions and staff may be less vigilant towards fraudulent activity. The losses may not be identified until the following Monday, by which time the fraudsters will have ensured that the monies cannot be traced. However, these scams are not confined to Friday afternoons and staff should remain vigilant at all times.

Education and awareness is the key to preventing Friday Afternoon Fraud and it is imperative that everyone is aware of these sophisticated scams and understands the risks involved. So what should law firms be doing to help minimise their exposure to such risks?

• Training staff about fraudulent activity and the potential risks should be a priority. Vigilance is key.

• Validate the authenticity of any calls received from the bank by calling the bank on a separate telephone line asking to speak to the Business Relationship Manager.

• Keep all banking security information secure at all times and never reveal such information over the telephone or in an email.

• Never transfer client monies to another account on the basis of safeguarding client monies.

• Check operating systems, browsers, anti-virus/malware software and firewalls are up to date and encourage the use of strong passwords, which are changed regularly.

• Review current policies and procedures to check their efficacy.

The impact of falling victim to a Friday Afternoon Fraud may have significant consequences on law firms given the potential financial losses, reputational damage and regulatory sanctions.

It is imperative that everyone is aware of the various scams and that they understand the risks involved.

39

High on the agenda Riverview law has unveiled its new technology project.

Do you expect to see more of these types of systems being utilised in 2016 and beyond?

C

liXLEX owns and licenses a Knowledge Automation Platform that enables knowledge workers, such as lawyers, with basic Microsoft Office skills to create, automate, maintain and evolve complex end-to-end workflows and processes for all areas of legal, compliance, risk and related activity.

Platforms like this that manage all activity from instruction, triage, case management, document creation and storage to alert triggers, workflow creation and forensic audit are indeed the future.

Technology that combines advanced data collection and management, configuration and machine-to-machine learning techniques with a growing level of artificial intelligence is an exciting prospect.

Historically, perhaps the legal sector has been less committed than other business areas in technology advancement. In part, this has been due to concerns about SRA regulations when using cloud-based technology and in part due to a reluctance to embrace technology as a key driver in business growth. Investment in such platforms are also expensive.

In our own business, we have invested in technology to ensure that as a growing business we have an agile operational platform. Core KPI’s were to evolve our own internal complex end-to-end workflows in all areas of project management (including due diligence), ISO 9001 compliance, financial management and risk related activity.

In the early part of our business journey, back in 2013, we reviewed McKinsey Institute research on how to facilitate online project management, financial and operational management together with business social network. Our commitment to leading edge web based software has achieved this with alacrity.

With the advent of fixed fees, tools that enable legal and related work to be completed quicker, better and more cost-effectively should be a key investment consideration. Efficiency driven through technology is something that needs to be high-up on the Board agenda list.

A key part of Riverview Law’s overall strategy is to drive this ‘virtual assistant’ area both organically and by further deals.

Zoe Holland, Managing Director, ZebraLC.

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Joanne Cracknell, Divisional Director, Willis Towers Watson.

ML // February 2016

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The Views

Will 2016 see criminal defence firms go paper free?

D

igitalisation of criminal justice in 2016 presents crime practitioners with opportunities for cost savings, agile working and growth. Yet are we really likely to see the paperless criminal practice?

January heralded the introduction of Better Case Management (BCM) followed by the introduction of the Crown Court Digital Case System (DCS), a secure, web based software solution that allows participants in proceedings to upload and annotate case materials, and present these during proceedings using in-court wi-fi.

The DCS means that practitioners will be increasingly paper free. In Greater Manchester, three Magistrates Courts are now fully equipped with wi-fi, however the other Magistrates Courts await the outcome of a consultation on court closures, as there is no point installing wi-fi in a court that is likely to close. If this pattern exists nationally, this will have a severe impact on digitisationin 2016.

Many Crown Courts are listed buildings. In Greater Manchester, Bolton Crown Court and Manchester Crown Court at Crown Square were live with wi-fi in January 2016 but as a listed building there was a delay at Minshull Street Crown Court. The same applied to the installation of expensive monitors allowing for the viewing of evidence.

Digitalisation within criminal justice cannot overlook the defendant. Many defendants may not be equipped to deal with matters digitally. For those in custody there are provisions for access to laptops but not the internet.

In certain cases, a claim for costs has to be submitted to the National Taxing Team. The National Taxing Team will only accept paper copies of the bills which involves printing off a previously paperless file. The NTT recently indicated that they had “no plans whatsoever” to go paper free.

41

Genuine commitment Numerous studies have shown that a career in the legal industry can be stressful. How should law firms be prioritising wellbeing in 2016?

ithout a doubt, the legal industry comes with its rewards but it also has its downsides, not least of which are the stresses that come with the job. The prestige and glamour of the legal industry, with the likes of TV programs such as Suits, Law & Order and Silk, continues to pull new blood into law while somewhat distorting the expectations of the stresses and ever changing responsibilities that go hand in hand with the profession.

From the very start of the process, law is stressful. Law courses are over-subscribed, difficult and expensive, yet as popular as ever. Stress continues when desperately looking for their training contracts, often having to paralegal for years before hand. This stress just escalates on qualification with increasing responsibilities and compliance burdens. So where is the fun part? With even a Law Society addition helpline, the fun seems to have been sucked out of law.

16 years ago, my brother Tony and I opened with the intention of bringing all the good habits we had learnt elsewhere and leave the bad bits behind. It was hard to do this but it seems to have paid off. Visitors comment on how happy our staff are. They find it difficult to believe it’s a legal office. We have grown to 40 staff and with 9 awards just last year (including the National Wow! Awards for creating client experiences as well as Gold in the Modern Law Awards for Best Commitment to Client Care and Gold for Best training), we can now pick and choose new recruits despite the shortage of good conveyancers. How it’s done is easy but slow and expensive. Dedicate your time to your staffs’ wellbeing.

We make a big thing about saying thank you and looking out for good things. We look to create magical moments for our staff both in the office and out.

W

2016 will see radical and exciting changes in the way the Criminal Justice Service functions. However it will be well into the year before the Digital Case System is truly functional in all courts and it’s probably going to be 2017 before the majority of practices give serious consideration to becoming paper free.

Don’t pay lip service but actually genuinely commit.

Ask what they want and act. Give them training, career progression and pastoral care. We even have trained counselors as we feel the happier the staff are, the happier clients will be. No longer will they have that Monday morning feeling. We also provide one to one mentoring, a personal ‘buddy ‘for support as well as having daily morning meetings to discuss problem files, and additional open meetings where we listen and reward staff for suggestions. They have even set their own values of supporting each other, caring for clients and teamwork. Investors in People recently commented on how engaged our staff were and that they had evolved into ‘mini generals’ for the firm.

Matthew Claughton, Managing Director, Olliers Solicitors.

Angelo Piccirillo, Senior Partner, AVRillo.

To be completely paper free, firms may have to invest in document imaging systems and every fee earner will need either an I-Pad or a laptop for court hearings and remote working. This is a significant investment.

ML // February 2016

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The Views

43

Cracking down on Cyber Crime

Good news for the industry

Is preventing cyber crime becoming a more sophisticated process than simply alerting employees to the potential dangers of an attack?

The Law Society have announced that their jointventure e-conveyancing project, Veyo will be ‘wound up’. Who should be held accountable for the demise of Veyo and what impact will it have on the industry?

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yber crime is an ever-growing, as well as ever-changing process.

Therefore, for any responsible organisation, the need to mitigate the risks to the maximum possible degree is paramount. This can only be achieved by sophisticating processes with ongoing awareness, training, and ultimately what makes employees comply – accountability, which is possible once their knowledge is certifiably complete. Xyone Cyber Security have addressed this problem with a solution called ‘Mitigate’.

After many years of working towards the creation of a range of powerful Information Security policies, we are proud to be in the final stages to have gained CESG certification. Mitigate is an E-learning delivered Information Security Policy Programme, which provides scenario based training over 12 modules that relate to 12 Information Security policies. This provides a full audit trail when a member of staff has undertaken the training and signed the policy, in return providing instant information in relation to an internal breach.

The Programme covers four areas of security concern, each of which contain three training policies and tests to be delivered either directly by employers, HR Directors, Heads of Risk & Compliance etc., or by Xyone.

The policies Mitigate covers are ►Acceptable Use of the Internet ►Email Use ►Disposal & Destruction ►Bring Your Own Device ►Mobile & Remote Working ►Cryptographic Controls

►Password ►Social Engineering ►Clear Desk ►Public Wi-Fi ►Backups ►Information Classification

Each employee is compelled through the programme to be made aware of the risks, trained in the art of mitigation and complete the course by passing an examination that ultimately leads to Trusted Status – the accountability status employers need to rely on their processes being as secure as possible.

The platform the programme is delivered on also allows employers to upload additional records onto the system, such as employment contracts, non-disclosure agreements etc. thus serving as a useful addition itself in the management of staff documentation.

Xyone Cyber Security offer a range of available references from recognised law firms and they welcome enquiries by phone, email, or in person at your office premises.

T

he recent announcement from the Law Society that it was winding up the much hyped Veyo ‘e-conveyancing platform’ was widely lambasted by the conveyancing profession after they had invested £7m into the failed solution with little or no consultation from conveyancers.

The announcement in December came after months of silence from the Law Society and the swift departure of their management team back in July.

Martin MacDuff, Managing Director of Redbrick says, “The premise of the Veyo offering showed promise at the outset and the concept of a chain view remains the Holy Grail for the sector, however, it soon became apparent that they had grossly underestimated the requirements of the conveyancing profession. Their marketing was too far ahead of the actual product development which only succeeded in causing disruption and confusion in the market.’

‘Their announcement is good news for the industry because firms can now proceed with their preferred case management provider confident that they are making a sound decision. Within days of the announcement, four large firms had signed orders with us.

Martin concludes, ‘Our clients report increased efficiencies and profitability of up to 40% with the use of our case management technology, so those firms that waited several months this year to proceed with us will undoubtedly have lost profit as a result. It is good news for the industry as a whole, both conveyancers and software suppliers alike, that the distraction of Veyo has now been removed.”

There have understandably been calls for answers from the profession and anger at the way such significant sums of money were spent. The Law Society’s new Chief Executive, Catherine Dixon estimates the total actual investment at around £7m and says that the budget was signed off by the Law Society Council. Catherine continues, “The investment was made with the Law Society’s commercial income reserves, not from Practicing Certificate fees. The investment will not be recoverable in full.”

With all of the senior management team having left LPT and the Law Society prior to the announcement it seems there is no one left to hold accountable.

Catherine concludes, “We commissioned the independent review of the product, ensured the Chair and the CEO of LPT were replaced and ensured the operating costs of LPT were reduced. We will learn lessons from this project and will ensure that changes are made and that the same mistakes are not repeated.”

Jo Hodges, Sales & Marketing Director, Redbrick Solutions.

Stephen Robinson, Managing Director, Xyone Cyber Security.

ML // February 2016

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The Views

Q. I gather recoverability of ATE premiums in insolvency proceedings is ending. What should I do?

A. Get a move on!

1. Something over two and a half years ago, the implementation of Part 2 of the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO), brought about the end of an era for recoverable ATE insurance premiums for most cases.

2. It also brought about what could be described as a ‘mad dash’ for ATE policies incepted prior to the 01.04.13 cut-off date. A surge in the volume of applications was expected and transpired. Inevitably, some were pretty ‘last minute’ and time pressures meant not all could be processed prior to the deadline.

3. Insolvency practitioners (IPs) were untroubled by the ‘2013 madness’ because an exemption preserved ‘recoverability’ for insolvency proceedings. Following a ministerial statement by Lord Faulks QC on 17.12.15, it now seems that exemption will come to an end in April 2016.

4. This gives rise to a sense of déjà vu… Undoubtedly a significant number of insolvency claims and IPs will be affected.

5. If you act for IPs you may want to consider the following, which are relevant from an ATE insurer’s perspective: • Prepare any application A.S.A.P. A thoughtful and succinctly completed application providing ‘at a glance’ information makes an effective review much quicker.

• Key information an underwriter will be looking for will include • Costs estimates - own and adverse • Quantum – what is it and how it is calculated • Brief legal opinion (solicitors or counsel), summarising the facts, the basis of the claim, anticipated defences and the rationale for prospects on both liability and quantum • Enforcement prospects.

• Amount of cover - How much cover should your client be seeking? This will relate back to the costs estimates. Following the first LASPO implementation, some uncertainties remain on the position where cover is extended post the cut-off date. As such, it may be advisable to double check the cover sought will prove sufficient.

6. A final thought - whilst there are obvious advantages in retaining recoverability, where a matter resolves on a global basis (as so many do), it may be that the position will not be so very different from April 2016 after all…

Matthew Williams, Head of AmTrust Law. If you have any further questions regarding this or would like to discuss further with AmTrust, please visit our LinkedIn Forum: www. linkedin.com/company/amtrust-law

45

Celebrating the past and changing the future

F

ollowing recent media reports – and social media commentary – on the subject of women in the law, we thought we would use our inaugural column in Modern Law to take a constructive look at this topic by show-casing an enterprise which highlights the pioneering work of women within the legal sector.

The First 100 Years is a ground-breaking history project, supported by the Law Society and the Bar Council, charting the journey of women in law since 1919. In 2019, the campaign, founded by Dana Denis-Smith, will mark the centenary of the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919, which paved the way for women to enter the profession.

The project will produce 100 short films for the British Library, celebrating powerful female role models, providing a platform for debate and establishing a valuable archive for the future.

The aim is to promote a strong and equal future for all women in the legal profession. Great progress has been made but there is still so much more to achieve, as was illustrated by the study published in July 2015, which revealed a 42% pay gap between male and female solicitors in Scotland.

The First 100 Years project challenges the attitudes underlying such statistics with stories of women lawyers such as Rose Heilbron. Born before women had the vote, she was a working mother who (with Helena Normanton) became the first female barrister to take silk, the first to lead in a murder case, the first woman recorder and the first woman to sit at the Old Bailey. As chair of the Heilbron Committee, she made the recommendations that rape victims should remain anonymous and be protected from unnecessary cross-examination about their sexual history, which we now take for granted as law.

We are delighted that, in Bridget Dolan and Katie Gollop, we have two female barristers taking silk this year at Serjeants’ Inn Chambers (together with Mike Horne).

However, it remains the case that women represent just 13%1 of today’s QCs. In this context we would urge you to visit first100years.org.uk for fascinating stories of inspiring women, ranging from Eliza Orme (the very first woman to receive a law degree in England in 1888) through to Sonya Leydecker (who in 2014 became the first female CEO of a leading law firm).

The Law Society’s recent report, The Future of Legal Services, predicts that by 2020 (101 years after the introduction of the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act) women will account for over half of all solicitors. We are delighted to support a project which highlights so many inspiring individual women lawyers. As Dana notes: “by celebrating the past we will be changing the future”.

Catherine Calder, Solicitor and Director of Client Care, Serjeants’ Inn Chambers.

1. Correct at time of writing

ML // February 2016

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The Views

Looking Forward: the Future of Conveyancing

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onveyancing solicitors can look forward to 2016 with confidence.

The housing market continues to improve, and demand is still strong in most areas with mortgage lending at its highest since 2008. A rise in property sales is also predicted before the increased SDLT rate on buy-to-let and second homes takes effect in April. The commercial property market is also growing again – although perhaps not as dramatically as residential property, and there has been a steady upwards trend in completed transactions.

How to benefit from a growing market In terms of price, solicitors generally provide conveyancing services at competitive prices. However, price is not everything and research shows that many sellers and buyers distrust the very low figures advertised by some companies, believing, possibly rightly, that they will not receive a very satisfactory service.

Ways to attract and retain clients Attracting new clients is important as well as retaining existing ones. It is vital to ensure that a new client’s first contact instils confidence, yet some firms still fall down in dealing with initial enquiries. Several conveyancing firms have found that they can benefit from the expert marketing service offered by companies such as Fitzalan Partners. We operate a number of websites, including Fridaysmove and Homeward Legal, aimed at attracting prospective clients across England and Wales for both residential and commercial conveyancing, including lease extensions and other legal work.

How to reach a new audience Fitzalan Partners can provide much wider advertising than individual firms can. Our dedicated sales staff can follow up online enquiries and provide a telephone service during extended hours to provide quotes and answer general enquiries about property purchases and sales, so that buyers and sellers feel they will be in good hands.

Fitzalan Partners and Searches UK In January, we acquired Searches UK, one of the country’s leading search providers. This enables us to initiate search packages promptly, saving time so that your clients will be in a position to exchange contracts with the minimum of delay.

Move with the times Conveyancing Solicitors must move with the times and continue to provide clients with fast and efficient services.

The best way to combat criticism is to show that you are doing everything possible to provide high quality services at competitive rates.

With our help, you can bring your services into the forefront of the minds of your potential clients.

Richard Rickwood, Managing Director, Fitzalan Partners.

To find out more about how Fitzalan Partners can help you reach new clients, get in touch on PJ@fitzalanpartners.co.uk or visit www.fitzalanpartners.co.uk.

47

Flooding – Facts, Figures, Flood Re and the Future • 5 Named Storms – have hit the UK since November 2015, with Desmond and Frank causing widespread flooding across the North / North West • 20,000 Claims –including over 5,000 by businesses [2] • £1.3 Billion – in pay-outs from storms Desmond, Eva and Frank [2] • £50,000 –the average cost of each domestic flooding claim [2] • 100 Years–since the UK experienced a month as wet as December 2015, with rainfall 91% above average [1] The winter of 2015/2016 has seen record-breaking rainfall and flooding, devastating thousands of homes and businesses, with insurance claims averaging around £50,000 each.

This comes amidst another UK housing crisis, where, as the government looks to free up land for the UK’s largest house building initiative, as many as 20,000 homes are likely to be built in flood risk areas, with 4,500 of these at high or medium risk.

Due to the shortage of supply, both builders and homebuyers are having to compromise, with recent research by HouseSimple finding that 1 in 4 homebuyers would still consider buying a home on a flood plain, despite the recent flooding [5].

The Environment Agency are also looking to re-draw their flood maps, which will undoubtedly place more UK homes ‘at risk’, making it harder and more expensive for the highest risk properties and businesses to take out insurance against future flooding.

Flood Re Due to launch in April this year, Flood Re is a not-forprofit scheme, managed by the insurance industry,set to benefit as many as 350,000 domestic properties. It will: • Provide affordable flood cover for households at the highest risk of flooding • Increase availability and choice of insurers for customers • Allow time for the Government, local authorities, insurers and communities to become better prepared for flooding • Create a ‘level playing field’ for new entrants and existing UK insurers [4].

A full understanding of flood risk “With flood risk providing a clear and present danger for all stakeholders associated with buying and selling property, more is expected of the professional advisor than ever before. Clear and unambiguous advice is needed to ensure that pitfalls can be avoided.” Philip Wilbourn BSc C.Env FRICS, RICS Contributor and Director of Future Climate Info Future Climate Info offer a suite of environmental reports, each including a FULL flood review and professional opinion.

[1]: http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/news/releases/archive/2016/december-records [2]: https://www.abi.org.uk/Insurance-and-savings/Topics-and-issues/ Flooding/Flooding-in-numbers [3]: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/weather/9324057/Weather-Britainon-flood-alert-as-a-months-worth-of-rain-falls-in-24-hours.html [4]: http://www.floodre.co.uk/about-us [5]: http://www.propertywire.com/news/europe/uk-home-buyerssurvey-2016012011456.html

ML // February 2016

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The Views

The leaders of the future How do the new Trailblazer apprenticeships in law work and how can they benefit my business?

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professional bodies.

urrent apprenticeship schemes across many industry sectors are being replaced by new ‘Trailblazer’ programmes, as part of a government initiative to make apprenticeships more employer-focused. The learning outcomes for these new programmes have been developed by employer groups from each sector working with

New Trailblazer apprenticeships for the legal sector include schemes leading to qualification as a paralegal, chartered legal executive or solicitor. The paralegal scheme will replace the current Advanced and Higher Apprenticeships in Legal Services. One of the main differences is that the current programmes test knowledge and competence throughout the apprenticeship, whereas achievement of a Trailblazer paralegal apprenticeship will depend on passing a single end-of-programme assessment. The new Trailblazer paralegal apprenticeship will provide exemptions from elements of the Chartered Legal Executive apprenticeship and vocational qualifications.

Public funding for Trailblazer apprenticeships becomes available from September 2016. CILEx Law School has employer clients who are already recruiting young people to follow the Trailblazer paralegal apprenticeship and also the solicitor scheme, which we are offering in partnership with City University London.

Employers will pay £1 for every £2 of public funding received.

The employer contribution can be offset by incentives including a payment for apprentices aged 16-18 and for organisations with fewer than 50 employees. There will also be a payment to reward success if the apprenticeship is completed.

The training funds and incentive payments will be drawn down from a £15,000 voucher, which all commercial organisations will receive from government. All businesses with a payroll of £3 million will have to pay a levy of 0.5% of payroll to the government from April 2017 to help to fund the cost of apprenticeships.

Employers are responsible for paying the apprentice’s salary. The minimum wage for apprentices is currently £3.30/hour. However, legal apprentices are usually offered salaries in the region of £12,000 to £15,000 per year, rising to £18,000 in the City.

To summarise, the new Trailblazer apprenticeships will offer young people the chance to sign up from the outset to become a paralegal or to qualify as either a chartered legal executive or solicitor in the context of secure employment and funded training. Many organisations adopt apprenticeship schemes with the stated objective of finding their leaders of the future.

For more information on how Trailblazer apprenticeships can benefit your business please contact us at CILEx Law School.

49

A national scandal

I

n his Autumn 2015 Statement, Chancellor George Osborne pledged to raise the small claims limit for personal injury claims to £5,000 and scrap general damages for ‘minor’ soft tissue injuries. If implemented these proposals will ensure vulnerable injured people will not receive access to justice.

The Chancellor is attempting to undo hundreds of years of tort law. As a client said recently “we cannot put the dead snail back in the bottle now” (a private PI lawyer joke dating back to 1932). Well that is just what the government is trying to do. Why any government would have the audacity to distinguish between a man injured operating faulty machinery at work resulting in soft tissue injuries, allowing him to recover financially where, suffering the same injuries, a man hit in a motor car accident would have no claim in the law of tort, is astounding (and no doubt insurer driven).

If this ‘reform’ occurs it will be a national scandal - a final nail in the coffin for vulnerable injured people against insurance giants. When did the wrongdoer’s profits become more important than injured people?

For years defendant lawyers have provided ‘more for less’ with insurers intent on driving down the cost in defending personal injury claims. When insurers demand a ‘Rolls-Royce claims handling service at paralegal prices’ defendant lawyers have done their utmost to comply.

In relation to claimant lawyers, fixed costs has meant that a quality service cannot be provided for injured victims, especially in complex liability claims. Complex and worth less than £5,000? Sorry, not a chance if the small claims limit increases.

The real agenda is to drive the cost of legal claims down and save the insurance sector ‘loadsamoney’. The legal sector will be destabilised in terms of redundancies and business failures (and the insolvency sector will continue to profit from the legal sector). Claims will be (under) settled daily through lack of access to justice. Tomorrow’s injured person will be worse off than the Victorian ‘man on the Clapham Omnibus’ and the most vulnerable in society will receive rough justice.

The Law Society, APIL, MASS and AJAG have joined forces against this retrograde proposal, standing against wrongdoers and those who insure them. I hope they succeed.

Lesley Graves, Managing Director, Citadel Law.

Noel Inge, Managing Director, CILEx Law School.

ML // February 2016

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51

The Features Fourth Money Laundering Directive What you need to know The European Union’s Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive came into force on 26 June 2015. Yehuda Solomont from VinciWorks explains what this means for law firms.

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he EU’s Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive includes some fundamental changes to the anti-money laundering procedures at law firms, including changes to CDD, a central register for beneficial owners and a focus on risk assessments. However, with proper preparation and training, the transition to the new regime should be seamless for most firms.

What is changing?

Changes to CDD • CDD is required by anyone trading goods in cash with a value over €10,000 (current level is €15,000).

• CDD by casinos where customers wish to place a stake or collect winnings of at least €2,000.

Enhanced measures for local PEPs The rules for politically-exposed persons (“PEPs”) are no longer limited to persons outside the UK. The Directive adds a note chastising firms for refusing the business of a PEP:“ Refusing a business relationship with a person simply on the basis of the determination that he or she is a politically exposed person is contrary to the letter and spirit of this Directive.”

Central register of beneficial ownership Under the Directive, corporates and other legal entities will be required to provide accurate and current information to the government on their beneficial ownership. This is potentially good news for law firms as access to a pan-European register will likely make CDD research much easier.

No automatic exemption from enhanced CDD Under the Third Directive and the current

Money Laundering Regulations, firms are able to automatically apply simplified CDD in the following circumstances: • Credit or financial institutions subject to the requirements of the Money Laundering Directive or similarly compliant local legislation • Companies whose securities are listed on a regulated market subject to specified disclosure obligations • UK public authorities • UK pension schemes.

Under the Fourth Directive, firms can use these circumstances as part of a justification for simplified due diligence after conducting a risk analysis. However the exemption from enhanced CDD is not automatic, and the decision to apply simplified CDD should be backed up by documentation. The Law Society has raised concerns that some of these situations will create an undue burden on firms, particularly in the case of pooled client accounts.

Emphasis on a risk-based approach The word risk appears 149 times in the Fourth Directive, compared with 36 times in the Third Directive. This is not a coincidence. The Directive puts a heavy emphasis on employing a risk-based approach to money laundering at every level. The current UK regulations already incorporate a risk-based approach, but the new Directive goes even further and it seems to require more documentation of the risk assessment. For law firms this means: • Requirement to demonstrate and document that risk assessments are conducted and kept up to date, taking into account risk factors including those relating to their customers, countries or geographic areas, products, services, transactions or delivery channels.

• Written money laundering policies and procedures that take the firm’s risk assessment into consideration.

• Internal audit teams, where necessary, to test the internal policies, controls and procedures.

• Money laundering training on how to conduct a risk-based CDD and ongoing monitoring.

What does this mean for law firms?

• Potentially easier CDD process with access to register of beneficial owners, although firms will not be allowed to rely solely on the register for CDD. • Firms and banks will no longer be able to apply simplified due diligence to pooled client accounts. The Law Society believes that this has severe implications for the profession and it is lobbying HM Treasury to change that provision.

• The Directive places significant weight on national risk assessments by member states. The recent UK national risk assessment found that law firms are high-risk targets for money laundering and that CDD processes and policies were weak. This new regime will likely bring even more scrutiny to processes at law firms.

What should law firms do to prepare?

• Plan to roll out new AML courses in early 2017, once the transposition is complete. MLRO’s should perform and document an internal risk assessment.

• MLRO’s should update policies to reflect changes to the directive and incorporate a risk-based approach.

• MLRO’s should consider adding an audit function to test procedures.

• All new policies should be reviewed and approved by senior management.

Yehuda Solomont is the Director of Marketing at VinciWorks. VinciWorks provides money laundering training to over 40,000 solicitors. To learn more about all new AML courses visit www.vinciworks.com/aml.

ML // February 2016

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The Features

Law firms drive efficiency and profitability through co-sourcing Maxine Park, solicitor and co-founder of leading digital dictation and transcription service provider DictateNow, explains why law firms are turning to co-sourcing, which offers the same benefits as outsourcing, but with greater control and guaranteed service levels.

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he Chancellor’s warning of further economic struggles for the UK in 2016 will be bad news for many sectors, but will once again strengthen the argument for outsourcing, which remains a popular option for law firms seeking greater efficiency and profitability. But is co-sourcing now the better choice?

Outsourcing non-core business processes has allowed firms to concentrate their resources on increasing fee-earning activities. This has allowed many to significantly increase efficiency and profitability, typically with far fewer individuals delivering in-house support.

The outsourcing concept is well understood by the legal sector, but many firms remain reluctant to transfer sensitive services to external providers. The profile of some service providers does not help, with hundreds of anonymous individuals, often located overseas, undertaking the work – something that can cause real problems for UK-based law firms.

This lack of control over the process has ensured a growing market for co-sourcing. Firms are now pursuing innovative processes and technologies

that allow them to adapt their business quickly to the changing work levels and constantly evolving business environment they are faced with.

Driving efficiency To deliver a co-sourced service, the provider will create a dedicated team within their own business to undertake specific activities for a client. This team works as an extension of the law firm’s remaining office function with regular contact, rather than as an outsourced substitute.

In April 2015, The Law Society issued a Practice Note focussed on outsourcing and amongst its many valid points, was one that encouraged law firms to consider whether outsourced work was completed to a standard that could be achieved if it was undertaken in-house.

Co-sourcing legal support services, particularly with providers employing individuals with previous experience of delivering the same services in-house at law firms, will easily address this issue and help drive greater efficiency.

A myriad of opportunities By co-sourcing secretarial services, firms have the necessary resources to

‘Co-sourcing legal support services, particularly with providers employing individuals with previous experience of delivering the same services in-house at law firms, will help drive greater efficiency’ ML // February 2016

cope with peaks in demand, without recruiting additional overheads to the pay roll. This delivers a guaranteed minimum service level, and avoids paying for underused secretaries when the firm experiences a quieter period.

Some firms have also benefitted from switching in-house secretarial resources to fee-earning activities.

The traditional outsourcing model is the mainstay of most service providers’ offerings, but law firms in particular require a level of confidentiality, work tracking and control that has helped shape this new co-sourced solution. Experienced UK-based legal secretaries are granted access to the law firm’s system to undertake remote typing on the client’s case or document management system.

Implementing a co-sourcing solution typically involves the service provider sending its secretaries to the law firm’s offices so each member of the team is familiar with the firm’s system and is trained in their unique working methods and business ethos. This level of understanding and integration ensures work is completed as quickly and efficiently as if they were sat in the office.

Firms can now access a range of services beyond simple transcription and copy typing, to include Land Registry searches, file opening, data input, document production along with work in the usual Microsoft Office programmes.

And given the global 24-hour nature of modern law, more and more firms are outsourcing call-answering for evenings and weekends, with the answer-machine consigned to history.

The Features

53

‘The use of dedicated cosourcing teams allows law firms to concentrate on growth and prosperity, safe in the knowledge they have the necessary resources available to help deliver the high quality service demanded by their clients, while driving the efficiencies that help them remain competitive’ Maxine Park

‘By co-sourcing secretarial services, firms have the necessary resources to cope with peaks in demand, without recruiting additional overheads to the pay roll’ All the necessary resources The advantages for the firm are numerous and obvious, with paying only for the working time of the team members a major consideration; no holiday, sick days, office chats and coffee breaks to pay for. The steady rise in office rental costs will also lead to many adopting the co-sourcing approach, helping either cut the space required or delaying the inevitable relocation for growing firms.

Co-sourcing secretarial support ensures fee-earners have quick and easy access to the services they need in the evening and at weekends, with all the necessary security and confidentiality compliance measures already in place.

Choosing ISO 27001 accredited service providers, registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), ensures there are no compliance

issues, unlike when meeting a deadline means a member of the office team is tempted to take work home on a memory stick!

The use of dedicated co-sourcing teams allows law firms to concentrate on growth and prosperity, safe in the knowledge they have the necessary resources available to help deliver the high quality service demanded by their clients, while driving the efficiencies that help them remain competitive.

Maxine Park is Co-Director and Co-Founder at DictateNow.

Maxine Park specialised in commercial litigation and was made partner at her firm in 1992.

When Maxine had her first child she worked from home. After the birth of her second child, she left legal practice, attained a PGCE and lectured law to legal executives, HR personnel and journalism students.

She launched DictateNow with husband Garry, to offer an enhanced and efficient transcription resource to businesses in a wide range of sectors including legal, medical, public sector, charity and parliament. Maxine’s experience as a solicitor and homeworking parent directly led to the formation of DictateNow which currently employs over 300 homebased typists in the UK, to provide fast, reliable and confidential digital dictation and transcription services.

A well-respected and published author, Maxine has a talent for delivering insightful, detailed and engaging articles covering topics of interest to owners, managers and individuals of businesses and organisations of all sizes across all sectors. She is able to shape articles to ensure they remain relevant to each audience and meet the needs of editors with regard to the originality and length of her articles.

ML // February 2016

54

The Features

REGIONAL FOCUS:

Bristol

Interview with... John Moriarty In the fifth instalment of Modern Law’s regional focus, Charlotte Parkinson, Modern Law spoke to the President of Bristol Law Society, about assisting members with business and management knowledge, and why he is optimistic about the future of the legal profession in Bristol and beyond.

Q A

What are the main challenges the Bristol Law Society faces at the moment and why?

Bristol Law Society is proud to be the oldest local law society in England & Wales. It has seen considerable change in the world and the profession since it was established in 1770. In 2020, we will celebrate 250 years. I do not think any law society has ever been through a period where there have not been challenges but at the moment, it seems that all at national and regional level are facing a wide range of unprecedented challenges. Bristol Law Society has been through considerable change over the last 5 years as we have adapted to meet the evolving needs of our members. Financial stability, relevance and attracting and retaining good people are our key areas of focus and challenges. Running what is essentially a voluntary organisation, relying on people who have busy full time jobs and family commitments is not easy and we have worked really hard to put in place a structure and processes to make it easier for people to contribute however limited their time. Our membership numbers now exceed 4,000 people and we have seen tremendous growth in annual turnover since 2012. However, we are not resting on our laurels and we remain committed to future change and growth to ensure we are still around for the foreseeable future and as long as we remain relevant.

‘Financial stability, relevance and attracting and retaining good people are our key areas of focus’

ML // February 2016

L-R - Ben Tarrant (President 2013/14); Michael Gupwell (Immediate Past President, President 2014/15); Gary Lightwood (Junior Vice President); Becky Moyce (Senior Vice President); John Moriarty (President 2015/16); Katherine Moyse (Honorary Secretary); Nicholas Lee (Honorary Treasurer)

Q A

What are your core aims during your tenure as president of Bristol Law Society?

This year for only the second time in over 100 years, we shall be moving premises. Whilst a challenge, it is one we welcome as this will enable us to fit out a property providing all the services and rooms (seminar, boardroom, meeting and mediation suites) which our members have indicated they require. This year will also see closer liaison with other professional bodies (e.g. ICAEW and IoD) to ensure we are at the centre of being able to promote all the business services that Bristol offers and to provide ‘joined up’ cross discipline education, training and business opportunities.

We are also completely revamping our website to facilitate a better user experience. This will include some member management of their personal details, such as specialisms, online booking and payment of events and a new recruitment page with improved job search function, and an

ability for organisations to place direct advertising on the site in addition/ instead of utilising the core agency service. All these factors will enable us to more fully represent and promote the Bristol legal profession.

Q A

How have the needs of members changed over the last 3 years?

Members are demanding more help with the business and management knowledge, and skills required to be a successful lawyer. This means we have to work harder at coming up with relevant topics and speakers to help our members acquire the skills and knowledge they need. We have found that members and key stakeholders want to engage more with us by offering information and speakers, as well as involving us in initiatives which include other professions such as accountants and surveyors.

Members want to get more out of the events and seminars we run and we strive to demonstrate real business benefit in them attending and engaging with us.

The Features

55

‘It is important to work together where possible but also acknowledge that our members rely on us to hold Chancery Lane to account where necessary’

Q

How do you and the team at Bristol Law Society ensure the society maintains its relevance to the profession?

We work incredibly hard to get in front of our members, law firms and other businesses in the region and we also have close links with our sponsors and strategic partners such as the University of the West of England and Lloyds Bank to name but two.

This ensures we are always aware of the key issues affecting our members and business generally. We consider ourselves to be a business partner with our members and sponsors.

A

Q A

What are the aims of the Law Society 2020 Discussion and what do you hope it will achieve?

There is little doubt that the Law Society needs to reinvent itself and offer something else to the profession if it is to be relevant to solicitors. We welcome the current process and hope that as many people as possible contribute to the debate and that the Law Society listens to the feedback and changes accordingly.

The Law Society has a very important role to play in the representation of lawyers but fundamental change is needed to ensure the profession has the confidence required in its ability to properly represent such a broad church as the legal profession.

the people who have the most direct knowledge of what is happening within our city and what our members want and are concerned about. We feel that our members look to us first to represent and support them. This is a considerable responsibility but one which we appreciate and thrive on. That is not to say that the national law society does not also play a role and we are proud of our constructive relationship with Chancery Lane.

Q

How do you think solicitors are perceived by the public? Do regional law societies have a part to play in building relationships on this level?

Sadly as a profession, we have not done very well at promoting ourselves and the good work we do. Every time there is a key issue affecting the profession, we always seem to come out of it with little public sympathy. However, solicitors are fighting back. We work really hard to maintain core values and to help people resolve difficulties. Our Annual Dinner showcased some of the great pro bono work being provided by lawyers within the City and the huge amount of charitable fundraising and other CSR activities which lawyers are engaged in, which is helping to turn the tide of opinion certainly at a local level.

A

Q A

Do you feel that Bristol Law Society has a voice in wider conversations with the Law Society?

How important is the role Definitely. We have a very of regional law societies in productive and mutually beneficial representing, supporting and and respectful relationship with promoting the needs of practitioners Chancery Lane where we can each at national level? express views and help one another I think we would say the role of where possible but also explain regional law societies is more where things could have been done important than ever and we have differently or better. After all, we are noticed a resurgence up and down LegalRSS_banner_Museo_Layout 07/09/2015 10:39 1 to represent our members both Page trying the country in recent years. We1 are

Q A

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at a time where the profession is under great strain and pressure so it is important to work together where possible but also acknowledge that our members rely on us to hold Chancery Lane to account where necessary.

Q A

What does the future look like for the legal profession on a regional and national level?

One cannot deny that there have been difficulties over the last five or so years and many firms, solicitors and colleagues have succumbed to those challenges. One also has to ask whether key principles and features of the British legal system have been weakened by certain government changes. There is continued concern over future regulation of the profession, the need to balance concerns over the potential dilution of the ‘solicitor’ brand - on the back of the new routes into the profession with the need to make law more accessible as a career - and all this whilst ensuring the profession can evolve and modernise to maintain its relevance to consumers. As a profession as a whole, we had to change and we are not unique. All businesses have faced considerable pressure recently but there is a real sense that the future looks strong for the legal sector in Bristol and beyond. Recruitment activity is strong but an ongoing challenge is for firms to attract quality talent and retain it. Transaction levels are good and there are a lot more corporate and property transactions reported. Our firms continue to grow and report increased turnover and client wins. So we are cautiously optimistic. I truly believe that the Bristol legal profession is in its best position for the last 10/15 years to develop, grow and weather whatever storms may hit it.

Equally, Bristol Law Society too is best situated to support and promote its members.

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The Features

57

DANGER! UNFRIENDLY UX Our resident IT guru Charles Christian writes…

S

hortly before Christmas, you may have read about a problem with the Ministry of Justice’s Form E spreadsheet on its website, which contained an error in its formulae that miscalculated the financial worth of spouses.

Glossing over the role of the MoJ, which has always been notorious for its technological ineptitude, what is worrying here is that over the 20 months the flawed form was in use, not one single judge, barrister or solicitor seems to have spotted the problem.

Presumably because not one single judge, barrister or solicitor bothered to question the results generated, or to run their own independent calculation to check the figures. Instead, they just blithely and unquestioningly put their faith in the MoJ computer.

Still behind To put it another way, 30 years after personal computers first started to make an appearance on the desktops of lawyers and (at least some) judges, the legal profession’s general level of computer competency and attitude towards technology is still pretty poor and verging on the naive.

As I’ve commented before, over in the United States, Casey Flaherty, a former general counsel at Kia Motors America has been championing the cause improved computer competency among lawyers. He was prompted to do this after realising corporations were regularly being overcharged by law firms, because they were being billed for the excessive amount of time it took associate and assistant lawyers

to perform routine tasks on computers.

To prove his point, he devised a mock assignment using standard office software (including the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, Word, Outlook and Acrobat) that all lawyers should be familiar with. The benchmark for the assignment was 30 minutes however the average time it took lawyers was 5 hours and some took as long as 8 hours! Flaherty’s view was he didn’t mind paying lawyers for legal advice but he was not prepared to subsidise their inefficiency when it came routine, administrative tasks.

Missing the point Flaherty’s initiative has now been taken up by law schools, law firms and legal IT trainers in the US, Canada and UK under the banner of the “LTC4” – the Legal Technology Core Competencies Certification Coalition. Now at this point, I doubt many legal software suppliers are jumping up and down in agreement saying “Yes, it’s exactly the same with our systems, firms buy our applications but their lawyers never bother with proper training and then complain the software doesn’t work!”

Good point, well made but software vendors also need to put their own house in order. Far too many legal software applications still have a clunky, user-unfriendly interface that looks like something from the early days of Microsoft Windows (over a quarter of a century old now) with endless non-intuitive menus.

Vendors always say users will get more benefit and a better RoI (Return on Investment) from the software if they invest in adequate training and upgrade to the latest versions with all the latest functionality. But, this is missing the point: if the end-user has the legal practice skills to do their job,

then it is not unreasonable for them to expect that any software they run will complement these skills and not require mastery of another set of skills, namely learning how to use the software that is meant to be helping them! As for not upgrading to the latest version, well who can blame law firms and legal departments as it inevitably requires even more training and rollout issues?

Why the headache?

The most widely used application on the planet today is Facebook but nobody needs to go on a three-day training course to use it, nor a helpdesk for ongoing support! As for upgrades, Facebook rolls out revisions approximately once every fortnight but the world doesn’t grind to a halt when a new version lands. Contrast this with legal software where initial implementation and subsequent upgrades are a huge big deal, with the training side a major headache that requires endless scheduling and frequently extra resources.

Why the difference? Because mobile phone apps and social media-type applications, such as Facebook and Dropbox, focus heavily on the UX (user experience) so there is no need for training and support whereas business applications cram in the features but ignore the hapless user. And, if we are really going to be cynical, it is also because business software vendors have traditionally generated a lot of their revenues from add-on services, such as training and support, so they have a vested interest in not creating a simpler user interface.

Charles Christian is the Editor-atLarge of the Legal IT Insider and tweets about #tech and #legalit at @ ChristianUncut

® Proclaim is the only Practice e v a H Management Software solution Endorsed by the Law Society. you heard? CALL 01274 704 100 www.eclipselegal.co.uk/lawsociety lawsociety@eclipselegal.co.uk

58

5 minutes with...

5 minutes with... Anthony Hughes Q A A What made you decide on a legal career?

As a teenager, I always wanted to be a lawyer and took the ‘traditional’ route to qualifying, going through University and Law School.

I kept promising myself I would have a year off, but that hasn’t happened yet! I was inspired by watching American programmes about lawyers, however - the glamorous illusions were shattered fairly quickly!

Q A

What is your professional background?

I started life at a small commercial firm called March, Pearson and Skelton, which became part of Pannone.

I always thought I would end up being a corporate lawyer but the people element associated with dispute resolution and the human side of personal injury caught my attention. From there, I joined James Chapman, doing insurance work, and then moved to Ricksons where I went on to become Managing Partner in 2001. That firm then merged with DWF and I was on the board there for a couple of years, which was very exciting. I then did 5 years as Chief Executive of Horwich Farrely. I have also been President of industry organisations such as the Forum of Insurance Lawyers (FOIL) and have enjoyed being a lawyer, managing legal businesses and being involved with various industry organisations.

Q

What is the biggest current challenge in the legal market?

For consumer firms, finding a successful route to market is the biggest challenge because it is so fragmented as a sector. I truly believe no law firm in the consumer market place has a true brand. For commercial firms, the challenge is to obtain the best quality work, as there are so many different levels within the industry competing against one another. As the top tier firms become bigger, they look to suck in clients from underneath. How firms react to change and reform is also an enormous issue at the moment.

Q A

Who inspires you and why?

My wife. She manages to juggle her professional career and running our lives. I am glad it is her doing it, not me!

Q A

Have you had a mentor? If so, what was the most valuable piece of advice they gave you?

When you are managing a team, you have to take people with you on the journey. Don’t just go at your own pace and assume everyone is there when you are trying to drive change into an organisation.

Q A

If you were not in your current position, what would you be doing?

If I wasn’t in my current position, maybe I’d go back to being a lawyer again!

Anthony Hughes is a Solicitor (non-practising) and Managing Director of Jackson Hughes Consulting Limited.

Eclipse expands to the Caribbean Government of the British Virgin Islands to implement Proclaim Case Management

T

he Government of the British Virgin Islands is implementing the Proclaim Case Management Software Solution from Eclipse Legal Systems, the Law Society’s sole endorsed provider.

In addition, Proclaim’s integrated reporting suite will allow the ODPP to conduct an in-depth analysis of data including file status and case durations, ensuring the highest levels of ongoing analysis and efficiency throughout the department.

The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP), a constitutionally independent office, handles all aspects of Criminal Law and prosecution for Darren Gower the Territory, including Magisterial, High Court, Appeals, and Privy Council.

Wayne Rajbansie, Director of Public Prosecutions, comments: “Eclipse’s Proclaim solution stood out to us because of its inherent flexibility – crucial for us in order to shape our services around our local statutes and criminal procedures. Additionally, with Proclaim we can enhance our efficiency by greatly streamlining the administrative tasks that are an integral part of what we do, ensuring that all case information is centralised.”

A bespoke Proclaim solution will be utilised throughout the ODPP, providing staff with instant desktop access and ensuring a secure, consistent and efficient approach. Proclaim will also allow staff to track all case information - from the initial log through to conviction - ensuring a complete onscreen case summary is available for authorised personnel.

For further information, please contact Darren Gower, Marketing Director at Eclipse Legal Systems, part of Capita plc, via: darren.gower@eclipselegal.co.uk or call 01274 704100.

ML // February 2016

e v a H you heard?

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