Compliance & Regulation
Immigration lawyer secretly recorded by BBC struck off
An immigration solicitor secretly recorded by the BBC advising an undercover journalist how to obtain “fraudulent” evidence for a visa application has been struck off.
SRA warns profession: Practising fees will go up this year
The cost of practising as a solicitor looks set to increase significantly this year after the SRA warned yesterday that it would be seeking more funding from the profession.
LSB chief: We’re “five years too late” to regulate AI
It is “five years too late” for regulators in the UK to provide “any meaningful response” to the challenges raised by AI, the chief executive of the Legal Services Board said yesterday.
Lawyers should “draw line” on which clients to represent
There is “a group of clients who should not be represented by lawyers” and the profession should be discussing where to draw the line, a leading anti-corruption campaigner has argued.
Declaration of Conscience a “magician’s trick”, says top KC
The ‘Declaration of Conscience’ that has sparked a heated debate on the need for the cab-rank rule is just a “magician’s trick” and “a performative, protest document”, the chair of the CBA has said.
Bar Council chair ratchets up rhetoric over eco-barristers
The public argument over the cab-rank rule looks set to rumble on after the Bar Council chair ratcheted up his criticism of barristers refusing to act against eco-causes.
Lawyers’ eco-declaration sparks cab-rank rule row
A row about the cab-rank rule blew up today after barristers who have committed not to prosecute climate protestors or work for fossil fuel companies self-reported themselves to the BSB.
SRA in-house lawyer review fails to recognise “severity of risks”
The Solicitors Regulation Authority does not appear to recognise the “severity of the risks” facing in-house lawyers indicated by its own research, a group of senior practitioners has warned.
LeO wins approval for 9.6% increase in budget to £16.8m
An “inflationary” 9.6% increase in the Legal Ombudsman’s budget for 2023-24, to £16.8m, has been approved by the Legal Services Board.
Solicitor-turned-barrister rebuked for offensive email
A solicitor-turned-barrister has been rebuked by the Solicitors Regulation Authority for sending an offensive email that wished harm or even death on its recipients.
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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