Compliance & Regulation
Solicitor struck off for undervaluing claim and then fabricating form
A solicitor who submitted a claim form for far less than the case was worth, in order to avoid paying a large court fee, and later fabricated it to show a higher value, has been struck off.
Senior solicitor who slapped young paralegal’s backside suspended
An experienced male solicitor found to have inappropriately touched a 21-year-old female paralegal, including slapping her backside, has been suspended for a year.
LSB prepares for “regular” investigations into regulators
The Legal Services Board plans to increase its “capacity and capability” to launch investigations into, and reviews of, the frontline regulators “on a regular basis”.
SRA: Profession making progress on diversity – especially at small firms
There is a “slow but steady increase in diversity among all lawyers”, the Solicitors Regulation Authority reported yesterday in its biennial collection of the profession’s diversity data.
SRA shelves accounts rules changes in wake of Axiom Ince
The SRA has postponed changes it was set to make to the accounts rules – including how money taken for costs in advance of work being done is dealt with – in light of the Axiom Ince scandal.
SRA admits it has “a long way to go” on diversity
The Solicitors Regulation Authority still has “a long way to go” on diversity, its chief executive has said – although its gender and ethnicity pay gaps are shrinking.
Exclusive: Axiom Ince director drops challenge to SRA intervention
One of the three Axiom Ince directors whose individual practices were shut down by the SRA has dropped his High Court challenge to the decision, Legal Futures can reveal.
Law firm innovator takes practice forward as unregulated firm
Law firm innovator Alice Stephenson has turned her business into an unregulated practice, citing problems with HM Revenue & Customs and the costs of running a regulated law firm.
Struck-off solicitor jailed for stealing £880,000 from clients
A struck-off solicitor has been jailed for nearly six years for defrauding clients of £880,000, which he used to prop up his practice and pay off loans.
Bullying, harassment and discrimination a “systemic” problem for the Bar
Bullying, harassment and discrimination at the Bar is a “systemic” problem, the Bar Council said yesterday, with 44% of barristers saying they have experienced or witnessed it in the past two years.
Blog
The new metrics for success in conveyancing
While technology has made much of the conveyancing process faster, there remains a practical limit to how many matters anyone can manage while still keeping standards intact.
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.
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