Compliance & Regulation
Bar regulator counts cost of “extremely challenging year”
The Bar Standards Board has described how it “struggled” to hit timeliness targets in an “extremely challenging year” for its enforcement work.
LSB bids to improve legal sector’s focus on vulnerable clients
Encouraging lawyers to embed client vulnerability into the design of their services is set to be a new Legal Services Board project next year, it said yesterday.
Tweeting barrister sues BSB for belief discrimination
A barrister who overturned a Bar Standards Board sanction for a tweet about Muslims that it said would cause offence is now suing the regulator for discrimination.
BSB mulls SLAPPs guidance as Zahawi’s solicitors are referred to SRA
The BSB is considering following the SRA in issuing guidance on SLAPPs. It comes as the solicitors acting for Conservative Party chairman Nadeem Zahawi have been reported under the SRA notice.
Solicitor jailed for 12 years for castle fraud after private prosecution
A solicitor has been jailed for 12 years for fraud by abuse of a position of trust following a private prosecution brought by his former client.
Ban for conveyancer who took second job with client on the quiet
A licensed conveyancer who took a second job working for a client without telling her firm, and then failed to follow its procedures when dealing with him, has been sanctioned for her misconduct.
Chambers focusing diversity efforts on access to the Bar, not retention
Chambers are focusing their efforts to improve racial diversity on recruitment rather than progression or retention, a Bar Council report has found.
Banks stopping law firms with licences acting for sanctioned people
There have been “numerous scenarios” where banks have stopped solicitors working under government licences for those subject to UK sanctions by refusing to process transactions, the SRA has said.
Warning for profession, help for public – SRA steps up SLAPPs pressure
The Solicitors Regulation Authority is now investigating 29 cases where law firms might be involved in SLAPPs, it revealed yesterday as it issued a warning notice over such abusive litigation.
Pioneering apprentices qualify as solicitors at leading law firm
Seven apprentices at the first large law firm to run the training scheme – which takes six years and includes a law degree – have qualified as solicitors.
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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