Compliance & Regulation
Manifestly incompetent solicitor fined for role in “secret sale”
A solicitor who facilitated a “secret, snap sale of inheritance property” after which the seller absconded to Morocco with proceeds to which he was not entitled has been fined for missing multiple warning signs.
Home Office “monitoring” immigration lawyers for regulatory breaches
The Home Office is keeping watch on immigration practitioners to ensure they are regulated and not breaching their obligations, it has emerged.
Law firm “colluded” with medics and others to layer PI claim
The Solicitors Regulation Authority should investigate a personal injury firm involved in “layering” a claim with further costs, given evidence that this is a pattern of behaviour..
“Shambolic” solicitor suspended over disorderly closure of firm
A solicitor who ran his law firm in a “shambolic fashion”, taking on more than 100 new cases when it should have been in the process of closing down, has been suspended for three months.
High Court rejects solicitor’s appeal against disciplinary findings
A solicitor described by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal as having acted in a seriously inept manner has failed in his appeal against an £8,000 fine to the High Court.
Solicitor used disbursements cash to prop up ailing PI firm
A solicitor whose firm was badly hit by turbulence in the personal injury market – as well as a failed attempt to diversify into cavity wall litigation – used cash meant for disbursements to keep his firm afloat.
Bar Council: Comparison websites “utterly inappropriate for barristers”
The use of online comparison websites for barristers is “utterly inappropriate”, the Bar Council has said, while describing the Legal Services Board’s work on NDAs “absurd”.
High Court rejects “pugnacious” ex-solicitor’s strike-off appeal
A solicitor struck off for making false and misleading statements on applications for professional indemnity insurance has failed in her appeal to the High Court.
BSB leaves door open to reaccreditation of barristers
The Bar Standards Board has said it is open to “revisiting” its position that a reaccreditation scheme to ensure the competence of barristers is unnecessary.
SRA to keep many disciplinary decisions online for longer
Details of many disciplinary and other regulatory actions taken by the Solicitors Regulation Authority will be published for longer than they are now, the regulator has decided.
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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