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It’s good to talk

16 June 2011 / Joe Reevy
Issue: 7470 / Categories: Features , Profession , Marketing
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Concerned about the future of legal services? Talk to your accountant, suggests Joe Reevy

Concerned about the future of legal services? Talk to your accountant, suggests Joe Reevy
A couple of things are beginning to annoy me about the debate about the future of legal services.
The first is that the way the debate is being presented is that there is one of two possible futures for law firms. One of these is to “brand build” and the other is no future at all: an unavoidable, slow, painful demise for firms that don’t take certain actions. I just don’t believe that the future for law firms is anywhere near as black and white as it is being portrayed.

The second annoyance is the old chestnut that services are to be commoditised and that the inevitable result of this will be more work being done on ever lower margins and (here we go again) an unavoidable, slow, painful demise for firms that don’t take certain actions.
These positions have been repeated so often that

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Freeths—Ruth Clare

Freeths—Ruth Clare

National real estate team bolstered by partner hire in Manchester

Farrer & Co—Claire Gordon

Farrer & Co—Claire Gordon

Partner appointed head of family team

mfg Solicitors—Neil Harrison

mfg Solicitors—Neil Harrison

Firm strengthens agriculture and rural affairs team with partner return

NEWS
Conveyancing lawyers have enjoyed a rapid win after campaigning against UK Finance’s decision to charge for access to the Mortgage Lenders’ Handbook
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has launched a recruitment drive for talented early career and more senior barristers and solicitors
Regulators differed in the clarity and consistency of their post-Mazur advice and guidance, according to an interim report by the Legal Services Board (LSB)
The Solicitors Act 1974 may still underpin legal regulation, but its age is increasingly showing. Writing in NLJ this week, Victoria Morrison-Hughes of the Association of Costs Lawyers argues that the Act is ‘out of step with modern consumer law’ and actively deters fairness
A Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) ruling has reopened debate on the availability of ‘user damages’ in competition claims. Writing in NLJ this week, Edward Nyman of Hausfeld explains how the CAT allowed Dr Liza Lovdahl Gormsen’s alternative damages case against Meta to proceed, rejecting arguments that such damages are barred in competition law
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