Compliance & Regulation
Profession paying “lip service” to diversity, LSB told
The legal profession pays only “lip service” to diversity and “there is a lack of action or appetite to pursue meaningful change”, a report for the Legal Services Board has suggested.
Newspaper pays top KC “substantial damages” for libel
The Times has apologised to a leading KC and paid her “substantial damages” for alleging that she had wrongly used the cab-rank rule to justify acting in a controversial Cayman Islands case.
SDT lifts restrictions on solicitor who showed “impressive insight”
The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has removed conditions on the practising certificate of a former law firm partner who now works remotely from Italy as a consultant.
CILEx Regulation urges reform, not replacement by SRA
CILEx Regulation has set out its case to remain the regulator for chartered legal executives, warning that it is prepared to go to court to clarify whether CILEX has the power to change.
Government “awareness programmes” needed to boost LEI
The government should run “awareness programmes” to educate the public about the benefits of legal expenses insurance, the Association of Consumer Support Organisations has argued.
Price transparency “unlikely to inform decisions”
The emphasis put on price transparency and comparison shopping by the Competition and Markets Authority and adopted by legal regulators, is unlikely to make much difference.
SDT finds City lawyer guilty over obsession with teenage colleague
A City lawyer who shared intimate pictures with a teenage apprentice and ogled her as she spread her legs in a swivel chair in the office was found guilty of multiple charges of misconduct last week.
SRA “spent three years deciding not to take regulatory action”
It took the Solicitors Regulation Authority three years to decide not to take regulatory action against a solicitor, it has emerged.
Cost of practising to rise sharply as SRA and Law Society unveil budgets
Solicitors’ practising fees are set to increase substantially this year, with the Solicitors Regulation Authority and Law Society needing an extra £9.3m to fund their work.
Partner was “blinded” by desire to keep best client
A solicitor who described a property developer currently being investigated by the Serious Fraud Office as his law firm’s “best client” has been fined £45,000 for misconduct.
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
Associates
