Four new members have been appointed to the governing Council of the Council for Licensed Conveyancers. One of the new appointments a professional member and three are lay members.

The three new lay members are Alan Cogbill, Colin Wilby and Quinton Quayle

The new professional member is Jonathan Mounteney.

More information can be found at www.conveyancer.org.uk/Latest-news/2016/Oct/Four-new-members-to-the-CLC-s-governing-Council.aspx

Woollcombe Yonge Solicitors are holding a charity golf day in aid of Children's Happy Hospital Fund.

Sponsored by X-Press Legal Services and Groundsure the event takes place at St Mellion International Resort in Cornwall on 18th October.

It'll be a great day of golf, food, drink and prizes. Contact Joe Cunningham at Woollcombe Yonge to enter your team and support a great charity.

Des Hudson, former chief executive of the Law Society, has left his post as chair of conveyancing portal Veyo, it has been announced.

His replacement, Ian Gray, who will take over as chair on Monday, is director of the US-based Turnaround Management Association and the European Association of Certified Turnaround Professionals.

The Law Society has invested over £5m in Legal Practice Technologies (LPT), the joint venture between the society and global technology giant Mastek, set up to develop and deliver Veyo.

The statement said LPT had appointed a new finance director, David Parry, described as “an experienced chief financial officer with a background in entrepreneurial and technology-based businesses, including business-to-business software development organisations and start-ups”.

Meanwhile there have been a raft of other changes in the senior management of Veyo. Stefanie van den Haak, Veyo’s commercial director, left the business this month.

A spokeswoman for Veyo said: “Stefanie was employed at Veyo as commercial director from January 2015 to August 2015. In this role Stefanie was responsible for establishing the sales team; managing the sales budget; creating and executing sales strategy. We wish her well for the future.”

The spokeswoman said Richard Garland, head of business development, “left Veyo in July to pursue another role at a different organisation”, while Paul Humphrey’s contract as programme director expired in June.

She said his contract “concluded as planned and as we entered the latest phase of work in the development of Veyo”.

Read the full Legal Futures article here

Accountants will soon be competing directly with solicitor firms ‘on every high street in the country’, according to a leading financial advisor to the legal sector.

Ian Muirhead, chairman of Solicitors Independent Financial Advice, said he expects 750 accountancy firms – three times more than first envisaged – to move into probate work after securing an alternative business structure licence.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales has accredited 113 entities as an ABS since last October, having been accepted as an approved regulator almost a year ago. A further 34 applications are being processed.

Speaking at a Westminster Legal Policy, Muirhead said too many solicitor firms are ‘in denial’ about the threat from the accountancy profession.

‘Success will go to those who can manage businesses and I query whether that’s going to be the solicitors or whether solicitors are going to be the back room boys,’ he said.

Muirhead argued that law firms’ response so far has been focused on consolidation, mergers and acquisitions – but this risks playing into rivals’ hands.

‘[The response is] safety in numbers, more of the same, not thinking outside the legal silo, and therefore missing the opportunity of which many new ABSs are availing themselves, of providing a more diversified and holistic client service,’ he added.

Read the full Law Society Gazette article here

A conveyancing hub in Bridgend serving clients across England and Wales is the latest legal services venture to receive a grant from the Welsh government in its efforts to expand the country’s professional services sector.

The Welsh government announced that it has granted South Wales firm Howells Solicitors £100,000 from its economic growth fund to create the 13 new jobs at the specialist centre.

Cardiff-headquartered Howells Solicitors, which has branches across South Wales, is aiming to become one of the UK’s top five conveyancing firms. It said that the Bridgend hub will have ‘a strong focus on the English market’ as well as serving local clients. 

Some comments on the Law Society Gazette website have questioned if it is right for the Welsh government to be giving what amounts to a "state subsidy" to a law firm.

Read the full Law Society Gazette article here

Banks may charge law firms more for borrowing if they abandon their client accounts, the legal regulators have warned in a joint report.

Investigating alternatives to client accounts was one of the workstreams agreed following a deregulation summit held by legal regulators last year, while the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) is considering allowing firms to use third-party accounts similar to the BARCO scheme for barristers.

A report submitted to justice minister Shailesh Vara by the Legal Services Board on behalf of the regulators highlighted both the dangers and benefits, particularly for small firms, of allowing choice on whether to handle client money directly.

The report, which explored options rather than arriving at conclusions, was particularly hard-hitting on the possible dangers of alternatives to client account.

“It has been suggested to us that banks may currently give favourable borrowing rates to law firms based in part on the amount of money those firms hold in client account, on the basis that banks make other income from such firms in terms of telegraphic transfer fees for transfers in and out of client account (for example for conveyancing transactions),” it said.

“Therefore, there could be a risk of ‘loan re-pricing’ for such firms if they opt to move away from handling client money.”

Read the full Legal Futures article here

Legal Services Board (LSB) chief executive Richard Moriarty is to leave the post next February after just a year in the role, it was announced today.

Mr Moriarty is returning to the Civil Aviation Authority as its deputy chief executive and group director for consumers and markets.

The LSB said it would advertise for a successor shortly with a view to making an appointment early in the autumn.

Read the full Legal Futures article here

Neil Rose's blog highlights Michael Gove's apparently dismissive attitude towards solicitors.

"Where Mr Gove fell down very badly – indeed, I would suggest unforgivably – was in totally ignoring solicitors while praising the criminal Bar to the skies. Maintaining a healthy independent criminal Bar is one of his “top priorities”, apparently. It was much the same in his first policy speech last month.

I really mean ‘totally’. In 95 minutes, the only mention of the word ‘solicitor’ was in the context of them seeking referral fees from barristers for criminal work – a practice Mr Gove pledged last week he would stamp out because of the damage it does to the Bar.

Other than that, it was as if solicitors do not make up the large bulk of the legal profession, and are not the people spending their days in magistrates’ courts and nights in police stations keeping the rusty wheels of the justice system turning. The way he was talking, you would think that only barristers have a claim to the majesty of the law.

It was either an appalling oversight or a naked attempt to divide the criminal lawyer fraternity (as well as yet another display of the political power of the Bar). Either way, it did Mr Gove no credit and will only serve to stiffen the resolve of striking solicitors."

Read Neil Rose's blog in full here 

Neil Rose is Editor of legal Futures.

Peter Edwards, managing partner of Tozers Solicitors LLP, has stepped down from the role as he prepares to retire from the firm in the next year.

Paul Kelly, head of the litigation team, will be the firm’s new managing partner.

Meanwhile, Graham Bond, who has worked for the firm for 46 years, has handed over the reins as chairman to Richard King, who will become the public face of the firm.

Vernon Clarke, a member of the firm’s strategy committee, said: “Peter has been managing partner of Tozers for 20 years and we owe him many thanks for continuing to steer our Devon firm, which was established in 1785, on a course of stability and solvency despite the difficult economic circumstances that the country has faced in more recent years. We look forward to hearing of the continued success we are sure he will achieve in ballroom dancing competitions now that he can devote more time to his hobby.”

Read the full Exeter Express and Echo article here

More than one in three house sales in the second quarter of this year failed to reach completion, according to data from home-buying company Quick Move Now.

Figures indicate a house sale fall-through rate of 36.34 per cent for the second quarter of 2015, a significant rise over the reported 22.76 per cent in Q1.


The firm says over the last six months, 22 per cent of home sales that fell through did so as a result of the buyer changing their mind, 16 per cent fell through as a result of the buyer being refused lending, 13 per cent fell through due to slow sale progress and a further 13 per cent fell through due to a higher offer coming in.

Read the full Estate Agent Today article here