Compliance & Regulation
Scottish solicitors to vote on ditching support for ABSs
Solicitors in Scotland will tomorrow vote on whether to oppose government plans to push ahead with alternative business structures.
Conveyancer backdated deed he had forgotten to draft
A vastly experienced conveyancer who backdated a deed of easement he had forgotten to prepare as part of a transaction has been barred from working in the profession.
Let us lead on equality, Bar Council chair tells BSB
The chairman of the Bar Council has urged the Bar Standards Board to let it lead work on improving equality, diversity and inclusion in the profession.
SRA’s client money warning: partners need to replace money at once
Law firm partners have been told that they must dip into their own pockets to replace any shortages on client accounts immediately upon discovery.
Exclusive: SSB clients “uncertain” about insurer’s assignment offer
Former clients of the collapsed SSB Group are “confused and uncertain” about an insurer’s offer to stop pursuing them for costs if they assign their claims against the law firm.
Dentons’ breach of AML rules was “inadvertent”
A breach of the anti-money laundering rules by Dentons, the world’s largest law firm, was “inadvertent” and did not amount to professional misconduct, the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has ruled.
Employee diverted client’s stamp duty refund to herself
A law firm employee who diverted a client’s stamp duty refund to herself – via an unwitting friend’s bank account – has been barred from the profession.
SRA lays out scale of Post Office investigations
The Solicitors Regulation Authority revealed yesterday that it has more than 20 live investigations into solicitors and law firms involved in the Post Office scandal.
Ban for office manager who used client money to prop up firm
The SRA has imposed a control order on a law firm’s office manager who took money from client account to pay wages and “prop” up the practice.
Law firms “could switch regulator” to evade financial mis-selling fee cap
Law firms have been told that moves to switch regulators to avoid fee caps being introduced for handling financial services mis-selling claims will be closely monitored.
Blog
The UK legal market is polarising – and the middle is disappearing
Consolidation and the boutique boom are not contradictory. They are the same market stretching apart at both ends – and it changes what your firm is worth, and to whom.
Conveyancing’s consistency problem is about pressure, not skills
When I qualified, a conveyancer had perhaps 10 or 12 plates to keep spinning. Today’s conveyancers have 20 or 30, and almost none of the room for error I had starting out.
The trade-off mid-sized firm partners think they’re making
Most of the partners I talk to describe the same tension. They want the firm to run efficiently and hit its numbers, but they also want their people to feel supported, developed and fairly treated.
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