Compliance & Regulation
Leading firm fined £101,000 for anti-money laundering failures
A leading South-West law firm has been fined £101,357 for failing to act over money laundering red flags on three property transactions, two of which may have involved a sanctioned entity.
Legal Services Board eyes 14% increase in budget
The Legal Services Board is considering a 14% increase in its budget in a bid to strengthen its “direct oversight” of the frontline regulators’ performance.
SDT was wrong to slash SRA’s prosecution costs, High Court rules
The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal was wrong to slash the costs of the Solicitors Regulation Authority in a successful prosecution by 78%, the High Court has ruled.
Law firms “may avoid high-risk work” under new complaints rules
Law firms may avoid carrying out work in “high-risk sectors” under the new regime planned by the Legal Services Board for client complaints, the Law Society has warned.
Disbarred barrister convicted over antisemitic blog posts
A former barrister who was disbarred for antisemitic and racist tweets has now been convicted for grossly offensive antisemitic material posted on his blog.
Solicitor accepts “substantial damages” over Times libel
A solicitor whose political ambitions were derailed by a libellous article about his legal work for miners has accepted “substantial” damages from The Times.
Consolidation of legal regulators “may be a good thing”
Consolidation of legal regulators “may be a good thing” if it pulls together knowledge, lessons, consumer research and engagement, the Legal Services Consumer Panel has said.
Bar Council to step up support for chambers
The Bar Council is to produce a set of template policies for chambers and may even set up a Bar jobs board, it has emerged.
SRA: Lawyers “must not trust AI to judge its own accuracy”
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has warned solicitors not to trust artificial intelligence to “judge its own accuracy” and remember that existing AI “does not have a concept of truth”.
Licensed conveyancers being brought back into AML compliance
More than 40% of firms of licensed conveyancers inspected by their regulator in the past year were non-compliant with anti-money laundering rules, a review has revealed.
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.
Reports
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