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Law firms: survival of the fittest?

02 December 2022 / Andy Cullwick
Issue: 8005 / Categories: Features , Profession , Legal services , Marketing , Technology
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Andy Cullwick considers how law firms are facing up to an uncertain future, & how they can best adapt to it
  • The latest White Paper from First4Lawyers looks at the big issues affecting law firms and what they are doing to prepare themselves for the difficult year ahead.
  • Whiplash reforms continue to bite, with a quarter of firms exiting the small claims road traffic accident market and more set to follow.
  • Despite the popularity of review sites, just over a third of firms read or respond to what is said about them online.

It’s at this time of year that we start seeing predicted legal trends for the next 12 months. Sadly, the outlook for 2023 is not so much of a prediction as a foregone conclusion. Rising inflation and the impending recession make it likely that the months ahead will be difficult for many, but particularly for law firms in the personal injury (PI) sector, the number of which has dropped significantly in

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Charles Russell Speechlys—Matthew Griffin

Charles Russell Speechlys—Matthew Griffin

Firm strengthens international funds capability with senior hire

Gilson Gray—Jeremy Davy

Gilson Gray—Jeremy Davy

Partner appointed as head of residential conveyancing for England

DR Solicitors—Paul Edels

DR Solicitors—Paul Edels

Specialist firm enhances corporate healthcare practice with partner appointment

NEWS
In this week's issue, Stephen Gold, NLJ columnist and former district judge, surveys another eclectic fortnight in procedure. With humour and humanity, he reminds readers that beneath the procedural dust, the law still changes lives
Generative AI isn’t the villain of the courtroom—it’s the misunderstanding of it that’s dangerous, argues Dr Alan Ma of Birmingham City University and the Birmingham Law Society in this week's NLJ
James Naylor of Naylor Solicitors dissects the government’s plan to outlaw upward-only rent review (UORR) clauses in new commercial leases under Schedule 31 of the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill, in this week's NLJ. The reform, he explains, marks a seismic shift in landlord-tenant power dynamics: rents will no longer rise inexorably, and tenants gain statutory caps and procedural rights
Writing in NLJ this week, James Harrison and Jenna Coad of Penningtons Manches Cooper chart the Privy Council’s demolition of the long-standing ‘shareholder rule’ in Jardine Strategic v Oasis Investments
Professor Dominic Regan of City Law School and the Frenkel Topping Group—AKA The insider—crowns Mazur v Charles Russell Speechlys LLP as his case of 2025 in his latest column for NLJ. The High Court’s decision—that non-authorised employees cannot conduct litigation, even under supervision—has sent shockwaves through the profession. Regan calls it the year’s defining moment for civil practitioners and reproduces a ‘cut-out-and-keep’ summary of key rulings from Mr Justice Sheldon
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