Compliance & Regulation
Law Society warns SRA to tread carefully over compensation fund cash
The Law Society has warned the Solicitors Regulation Authority not to ask the profession to stump up millions to boost its compensation fund without consulting first.
CILEX regulator rejects “deskilled” advocacy warning over higher rights
The regulator of chartered legal executives has rejected warnings from barristers of a “deskilled” advocacy profession with a “third and lower tier”, if it goes ahead with granting higher rights of audience.
Barristers “need guidance from chambers on sanctions compliance”
Chambers need to have “mechanisms and guidance in place” to ensure their barristers are complying with UK sanctions, the Bar Standards Board has said.
LeO seeks £1.2m budget increase as complaints numbers rise
The Legal Ombudsman has proposed a 7% increase, or £1.2m, in its budget to nearly £18m next year, with delays at the complaints-handling body set to continue for longer than anticipated.
Sex offender given access to child’s data by law firm found in contempt
A convicted sex offender accidentally given access by a leading law firm to a vulnerable child’s confidential information has been found guilty of contempt for not complying with court orders to delete it.
Beringer: Firms must be publicly accountable for new client decisions
Commercial law firms must be prepared to publicly justify acting for controversial clients and not hide behind professional arguments like access to justice, ex-Allen & Overy senior partner Guy Beringer has said.
Solicitors “have more positive view of their services” than consumers do
There are “several discrepancies” between the quality of the service solicitors believe they are providing and what consumers perceive, research for the SRA has found.
Law firms each fined £12,000 for AML failures
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has fined two law firms over £12,000 each for anti-money laundering failures, one having accepted source of funds confirmation from a Ukrainian law firm.
Majority of law firms still failing to follow price transparency rules
Nearly six in 10 law firms are failing to publish the full cost and service information required by the transparency rules, a report for the Solicitors Regulation Authority has found.
Solicitor who practised unauthorised for son’s business is suspended
A solicitor who practised unauthorised and handled reserved probate work for a company owned by her non-solicitor son after her firm closed has been suspended for three months.
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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