Paralegal firm nudges aside solicitors … Scottish government sued by former head of child sex abuse inquiry … British barrister’s Twitter tirades … Offshore developments  

FORMER Corrs lawyer Dr Yuri Rapoport, who has been London-based for the last dozen years, continues to turn out new business services for lawyers. 

He’s launched an outfit called Legal Case Management, which uses the “unregulated services” of paralegals to do masses of grunt work and “time-consuming legal tasks” and in the process bypass solicitors. 

Doc Rapoport told the UK Law Society Gazette that LCM handles outsourced tasks such as information collection, document bundling, evidence qualification and client management and saves time on “unnecessary tasks”.  

The new service got an endorsement from 3PB barrister Stephen Harvey QC who, in the process, swiped costly and inefficient solicitors: 

“Many clients who I work with find the traditional way or working with a solicitor as the main supplier of legal services both costly and, often, inefficient.” 

Legal Case Management’s pricing policy is based on the share of savings achieved for the customer, “which means that you will always pay less for your legal requirements when using LCM”.

Four years ago Doc Rapoport unveiled a finance company which secured the endorsement of the Bar Council of England & Wales. 

Legal Cost Finance offers plans to cover the cost of legal services so barristers can get their bills paid sooner, while clients can opt to pay the finance company in instalments over time. 

This is not like litigation funding whereby the funder takes a stake in the proceeds of a case outcome. LCF provides “direct financing” that is not restricted to any type of matter and is not tried to the chances of success. 

Money from LCF operates in conjunction with BARCO, the escrow account operated by the bar council, so that barristers do not have to handle any grubby cash directly.  

The bar’s director of services, Paul Mosson, says LCF should provide barristers with “peace of mind”.  

One of Rapoport’s early ventures, which began life in Australia, was Prime Law Brokers, which sought to match consumers with practitioners. 

The PR blurb described Dr Yuri as “the father of legal referral services” who has “assisted over one million clients to find the right lawyer”. 

These various law-focused services are operated through a business called Kohen Rapoport Group, which has the encouraging corporate slogan, “Shaping the future of legal practice”.  

From time to time his services seem to change their name and function. He is in 2013 spruiking a business called Oracle Legal Case Management, “the lawyers who manage the lawyers”. 

Among the current components of Yuri’s sprawling empire we find: 

Yuri Rapoport hailed from Melbourne and his bio says he graduated from Bond Uni as a Doctor of Legal Science in international banking and finance law and human rights law. 

He’s also a BSc in biochemistry and physiology from Monash. His website declares he’s “a thought leader within the world of tomorrow”. 

Much ado in the field of UK inquiries into child abuse. 

In July last year Susan O’Brien QC resigned as chairwoman of the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry following complaints about some of her “off” comments. 

During a training session for inquiry personnel she referred to a survivor who had described the abuse as “the best thing that had ever happened”. 

It was claimed this breached confidentiality and according to child abuse expert Claire Fyvie it demonstrated a “shocking level of misjudgment” and that the chairwoman was unfit for the job. 

On another occasion Fyvie said that O’Brien questioned the evidence given at the trial of a teacher who was found guilty of sexual offences, suggesting that “the teacher in question had simply had a hole in his trousers”.  

O’Brien said this was a “misunderstanding”. 

Scotland’s deputy first minister, John Swinney, said that the chairwoman’s comments “lacked any context in which they could be seen as acceptable” and that victims could no longer have confidence in her. 

The government had initiated a formal procedure to remove O’Brien as chairwoman, but she promptly resigned. 

Now the former chair is suing the Scottish government for £500,000 claiming officials sought to undermine her independence, that she had done “nothing wrong” and she wants money for loss of earnings and damage to her reputation. 

Another panel member, Professor Michael Long, also resigned describing the inquiry as “doomed” because of government meddling. 

Now Glenn Houston, the third member of the inquiry, has quit because he has taken on other public appointments.  

O’Brien was replaced as chairwoman by a judge from Scotland’s Inner House, Lady Anne Smith. She is now the sole member of the inquiry panel.  

There are reports from the Old Dart that two prominent British barristers with expertise in child sex cases have fallen out bitterly.  

Bristol-based brief Sarah Phillimore has written to lawyers for barrister Barbara Hewson, of 1 Gray’s Inn Square, complaining about her conduct on Twitter and claiming she encouraged her followers to harass and stalk a journalist. 

She wrote: 

“I … believe I have clear evidence to support my contention that Ms Hewson’s online activities have serious and potentially criminal ramifications well beyond the issue of publication on Twitter. This is not acceptable behaviour from a practising barrister.” 

It seems the fracas had its origins in disagreements about the Irish-born Hewson’s views on child sexual abuse. 

In response to Operation Yewtree’s investigation of sexual abuse of children by Jimmy Saville and others Hewson declared that the age of consent be lowered to 13 and that there be an end to the “persecution of old men”. 

The Stuart Hall case involved the former host of the BBC game show It’s a Knockout. He pleaded guilty to offences involving 13 young victims. 

The evidence showed that Hall molested a nine-year-old girl by putting his hand up her skirt, that he kissed a 13-year-old girl on the lips after saying to her, “people need to show thanks in other ways”. 

On another occasion in the 1970s he fondled the breast of a girl aged 16 or 17.  

Hewson described his offences as “low level misdemeanours”. 

Her Twitter account, with the name “Scribbler”, was suspended. She has a new account, A Country Girl, but it is locked.