Compliance & Regulation
Law firm owners suspended for accounts breaches dating back to 1980s
The veteran husband and wife owners of a Midlands law firm have been suspended for manifest incompetence after allowing dormant client balances to build up over decades.
CA rejects latest challenge to costs deduction from damages
The time for a client to challenge a solicitor’s deduction from their damages runs from the time the deduction is made, without the client having to agree the specific amount.
SRA happy with standards of law firms handling LPAs and deputyships
Law firms are maintaining a good standard of service despite increased demand for lasting powers of attorney and deputyship work, an SRA review has found.
LSB bids to reduce regulatory barriers to tech adoption
Regulators need to bring down the barriers to technology adoption and innovation in the interests of reducing unmet legal need, the Legal Services Board has said.
Solicitors to pay extra £13.5m to Law Society and SRA
Individual solicitors and their firms will have to pay an extra £13.5m to be regulated and represented in the coming year, it emerged today.
Small firms at heart of AML reports made by SRA
The Solicitors Regulation Authority reported transactions potentially involving money laundering worth over £75m to the National Crime Agency in the last financial year.
SRA granted civil restraint order against struck-off solicitor
The High Court has granted the Solicitors Regulation Authority an extended civil restraint order to stop a struck-off solicitor from taking further legal action against it.
Government commits to end barriers holding back CILEX lawyers
The Ministry of Justice has set out its vision of ensuring that “there are no unnecessary barriers preventing CILEX members progressing their careers”.
Ban for paralegal who lied on CV to get job at law firm
A paralegal who lied on his CV about his experience, signed a statutory declaration and held himself out as a solicitor has been banned from working in the profession.
Bar chief backs feminist barrister abused by other counsel
The chair of the Bar Council has spoken out in support of a feminist barrister who said yesterday that she has complained about abuse from more than 50 “mainly White male” barristers.
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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