Compliance & Regulation

An SRA review of law firm acquisitions has highlighted failures and behaviours on the part of some target firms as a cause for concern.

All law firm accountant’s reports will have to be submitted to the SRA in future, and sole owners will not generally be allowed to hold compliance roles too, under proposals published today.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has shut down four law firms so far this week – two of them connected to the same man.

Both the structure and delivery of legal services – such as a lack of guidance and reactive communication – can cause difficulties for consumers, new research has found.

The Legal Services Board has expressed “significant concerns about the viability” of the Legal Ombudsman scheme as it struggles to get its caseload under control.

Digitally excluded consumers need law firms to maintain “meaningful offline routes” to services because “digital transformation is not inherently progressive”, says a report for four legal regulators.

The government yesterday pledged further action to target professional enablers of fraud, like corrupt lawyers, and called for “innovative” approaches to strengthening ethics.

The SDT has lifted all restrictions on the future practice of a solicitor who was indefinitely suspended for failing to pay indemnity insurance premiums.

The number of reports to the Bar Standards Board of bullying and harassment has almost doubled in the last year, the regulator has revealed.

The SRA will respond “sympathetically” to self-reports from those who may have been operating incorrectly under the terms of the Mazur ruling.