Who are our competitors – and which worry us?

Posted by Justin on Dec 30, 2010 in Abaddons Musings, communitarianism, conveyancing, lawyers, legal system, local, professionals, risk, small towns, Tenterden, Weald | 0 comments As “High Street” solicitors, who tend to handle local work for local people, it might be thought that our main competitors are other, similar “High Street” solicitors – I think notAlthough there is competition between us and other local firms, we do not see them as an existential threat (oooh! Big words!) On the whole, they tend to have the same philosophy of...
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Turmoil for the legal profession

Posted by Justin on Dec 21, 2010 in Abaddons Musings, conveyancing, lawyers, legal system, professionals, risk | 0 comments The legal profession is undergoing a period of change and review more far-reaching than anything it has experienced before. The following consultations (which will lead to change) and already decided changes are under way (thanks to Rob Hailstone of the Bold Group for drawing all this together) -SRA Consultations: The new SRA Handbook: This consultation is the last opportunity for comments on...
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Quality standards?

Posted by Justin on Nov 21, 2010 in Abaddons Musings, conveyancing, CPD, cynicism, estate agents, lawyers, legal system, professionals, risk | 1 comment Research by the Consumer Panel – which advises the Legal Services Board, the regulator of lawyers – finds that “consumers assume all lawyers are technically competent and are subject to more regulatory controls than is the case. This means that quality considerations do not strongly influence consumers’ choice of lawyers and people erroneously consider that all legal...
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Love thy neighbour?

Posted by Justin on Mar 29, 2010 in Abaddons Musings, conveyancing, legal system, risk | 1 comment For all the legal and physical investigations a homebuyer can do, nothing beats checking on the neighbours – http://bit.ly/aPmuOGSeriously: if your home is to be your sanctuary, you need good neighbours. Like family (unlike friends), you cannot choose them – existing neighbours may be replaced by new ones. However, before you buy a new home., check on the neighbours – and if...
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Always learning, always improving

Posted by Justin on Mar 23, 2010 in Abaddons Musings, conveyancing, HIPs, lawyers, legal system, risk, training | 0 comments I spent all of today on a conveyancing CPD (continuous professional development) course in Tunbridge Wells.While most of the content was not new, it provided a forum for some interesting discussions with other solicitors about practices, procedures and attitudes to risk – and about “clients from hell”!It also left me with about a dozen possible improvements to make to paperwork...
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Money laundering

Posted by Justin on Mar 18, 2010 in Abaddons Musings, conveyancing, lawyers, legal system, risk | 0 comments Though conveyancers have been at the sharp end of money laundering activity to date, it seems that litigators are now being targeted as wellUntil now, it was thought that litigation was a less fertile area for laundering the proceeds of crime than conveyancing was: fraudsters had been setting up spurious property transactions in order to launder money, while litigation was considered a less...
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