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Industry Insights

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Industry Insights
July 15 2021

Delivering Net Zero and in-house lawyers’ pivotal role

The legal sector has an opportunity to be on the right side of history in helping keep a liveable planet for all.  When it comes to delivering climate action, the most important part of the sector are in-house lawyers, due to their direct interface with their organisation; a trusted advisor who can act as a moral compass.
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February 4 2021

The SQE Explained

The SQE is here, and it means big changes to the solicitor qualification process. We've broken down the main points about the SQE, Qualifying Work Experience, and the Professional Development Record. Learn all about them here!
October 28 2020

Flying Solo: Is your business prepared for Brexit?

A few weeks ago, Flex Legal was thrilled to conduct our monthly Virtual GC Session in collaboration with LexisNexis and Radius Law. Speakers at this event included Iain Larkins and Sandra Martins of Radius Law, who discussed business preparations for the rapidly approaching end of the UK’s Brexit transition period.
August 13 2020

Maximising Law Firm Relationships: A How-to Guide for In-house Counsel

On our latest GC call we were delighted to welcome Will Long, Client Partnership Director at Alacrity, who shared some valuable insights into how general counsel can get more value out of their external law firms. For Will, three key areas must be considered when trying to drive valuable relationships between the two: controlling costs; transparency; and evolving relationships through data.
June 30 2020

How In-House Legal Teams Contribute Value to Businesses

The legal industry has been shifting significantly in recent years, with the role of in-house legal teams at the heart of the change. Although GCs have been discussing how to add value as a legal function for a number of years, articulating this idea in practical terms is difficult. In order to understand and examine the concept of ‘value’ and ‘value-adding behaviours’ of in-house lawyers, LexisNexis UK carried out a deep-dive survey with senior GCs across a range of sectors and organisations.
February 28 2020

Coronavirus and Force Majeure

With the outbreak of Coronavirus spreading at a rather alarming rate, the world’s economy is starting to feel the effects as governments take action, impacting on global supply chains and other commercial relationships. Stocks have fallen continuously, in what has been the worst week of trading since the 2008 crisis. However, from a legal perspective it has seen a rise in the use of an oft forgotten but at present vital boilerplate clause, the force majeure.
August 30 2019

The Future of Law De-Mystified

Earlier this month, F-LEX held a thought-provoking panel discussion in Manchester, chaired by our Head of Northern Hub, Eimear McCann. 50 of us, a range of legal enthusiasts and techies, gathered to demystify the future of the law. The evening proved to be a real crowd pleaser, provoking some interesting questions from the audience and some healthy debate.
May 23 2019

GDPR - One Year On

On 25th May 2019 it will be one year since the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into force. As consumers, we all saw an increase in emails about updates in privacy policy in the run up to the GDPR. But what other changes have been taking place over the past year?
February 27 2019

SQE - The Student's Perspective

The SQE is going to have a profound effect on law firms, for Flexers and, most importantly, law students. Two Flexers have been chosen to be part of the SRA’s Pilot Scheme. We sat down and asked Caulyn Bong (CB) and Johanna Lipponen (JL) a few questions about the SQE and the Pilot scheme.
Tags:SQE
January 9 2019

Optimising legal services delivery – Legal Operations and the business of law

As 2018 began to wind down and at F-LEX we looked ahead to the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC) London Institute in January 2019, F-LEX co-founder and CEO, Mary Bonsor, met Sarah Barrett-Vane, Legal Operations specialist and Consultant from SBV Consulting to discuss all things Legal Operations, how the legal market is changing and what lawyers of the future can do to ensure they move with the change.
June 5 2018

What is blockchain?

Blockchain is the driving force in digital disruption and is the technology behind bitcoin and other virtual currencies, however there is still much confusion behind it. This article aims to debunk the misconceptions around blockchain and provide a holistic view over it.
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October 27 2021

The future of work: what hybrid means for the legal industry

The legal industry finds itself in the midst of a huge upheaval. The COVID-19 pandemic proved that remote working in law works, and the "Great Resignation" has seen legal professionals leaving their firms in search of better life / work conditions. As we rebuild, we must ask if this new hybrid model is here to stay? Read this longform article to find the answer to this burning question.
July 13 2020

5 ways to empower junior lawyers

An accomplished leader of legal teams, Joanne has a wealth of experience spanning city firms, start-ups, charities and global companies, and a passion for inclusion and mental health. Sophie Gould, Head of Learning and Development at F-LEX, asks Joanne to share her wisdom and advice. In part one of this interview Joanne explains how she gives junior lawyers a voice to discuss risks and problems.
May 28 2020

How one law firm are preparing for a return to the office

These unprecedented times have thrown up challenge after challenge. With the government starting to ease restrictions, for many law firms the next challenge is how to get the office prepped for the return of their staff. I was able to catch up with Nigel Coates, Deputy Senior Partner at Russell-Cooke to get his thoughts of life in lockdown and the steps that his firm are taking to prepare the office for life after lockdown.
July 25 2019

Diversity in Law: The Quick-fire View

This month we were able to sit down with Chris White Founder of the UK’s leading legal diversity platform, Aspiring Solicitors to tackle the topic of Diversity. In a month where we have celebrated difference and inclusivity we wanted to explore a topic that is hot on the lips of every law firm in town! We asked Chris some quick fire questions on the topic.
July 30 2018

How technology is changing the legal industry

Across all industries, technology has challenged the status quo and the legal industry is no exception. The question is how? The unprecedented pace at which technology is evolving makes this general question difficult to answer in absolute truth.
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December 7 2021

Modern Slavery: hidden in plain sight

Modern Slavery - it's everywhere and probably closer than you think. Everyone in the legal community understands the importance of human rights - but do we know about human rights abuses happening right under our noses?
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February 5 2021

SQE FAQs

Got questions about the SQE? Look no further! There can be a lot to unpack about the SQE, how it fits into existing frameworks, and QWE, so we've covered the main points in this post.
Tags:SQE
October 13 2020

What Can Businesses Expect From A Second Wave?

A few weeks ago, we were delighted to welcome Ehsan Haque and Daniel Morgan as guest speakers at our Virtual GC Session in collaboration with LexisNexis and Radius Law. Ehsan is the Global Head of Legal and Compliance at Hamilton Capital, and Daniel is Managing Partner at Haines Watts. The topic for the call surrounded the second wave of COVID-19 and its potential impacts on businesses.
August 28 2020

Innovation and Legal Tech: Part 1

This is the first of a three part series examining legal technology and how junior lawyers are driving innovation. Harry spoke to three of The Legal Technologists’s top 10 most innovative junior lawyers to ask them about their journey, experiences and advice they would give.
July 9 2020

How In-house Legal Teams are Innovating

We were pleased to welcome an excellent panel of speakers to join last week’s GC call in collaboration with LexisNexis and Crafty Counsel, including Dinesh Jadav, Director of Legal Operations at Royal Mail; Manu Kanwar, Co-founder of LexSolutions; and Madeleine Graham, Head of Product Design at LexisNexis. The discussion continued to build on the theme of legal innovation within the in-house community, with the panel sharing excellent insights from their own experiences.
April 29 2019

The SQE Follow-Up

A few months ago we sat down with Johanna and Caulyn to talk about the then upcoming SQE pilot. In this interview we find out a bit more about their experience on the pilot and what we can expect in the future.
Tags:SQE
January 21 2019

Becoming familiar with legal technology

Put simply, legal technology refers to the use of software to help provide legal services. Legal technology has been instrumental in the emergence of startups seeking to disrupt the traditional aspects of the profession.
July 30 2018

Cryptocurrencies: an overview of the risks and the regulations

“Cryptocurrency” describes the digital system (“crypto”) where transactions within a system of money (“currency”) are recorded on an open and distributed ledger, called the “blockchain”. Unlike fiat currencies[1], the ledger used is not backed up by banks, any physical asset, or credit of any government or business.