Compliance & Regulation
Lawyers should “actively advise” clients on their environmental impact
Lawyer are not merely “servants of their clients” and should counsel their clients about environmental harms their instructions may lead to, a leading legal academic has argued.
Supreme Court will not hear appeal on professional tribunal members’ pay
The Supreme Court has refused permission to appeal a ruling that a barrister who sat as a tribunal chair for the Nursing and Midwifery Council was a ‘worker’ and entitled to sickness and holiday pay.
SDT lifts restriction on solicitor holding management position in firms
The SDT has lifted part of the conditions imposed on a solicitor suspended for a year a decade ago for multiple rule breaches, allowing him to return to law firm management.
SRA rows back on requiring junior staff to challenge bad behaviour at work
Law firm managers, but not junior staff, are set to have a regulatory obligation to challenge colleagues who treat others unfairly or without respect, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has said.
LeO seeks 9.6% budget rise equivalent to £7.20 per solicitor
The Legal Ombudsman is seeking an “inflationary” 9.6% increase in its budget for 2023-24 to £16.8m as it aims to “drastically reduce” the complaints backlog.
Philip: SRA will make full use of unlimited fining power for economic crime
The Solicitors Regulation Authority will make full use of the proposed new power to issue unlimited fines against solicitors and firms caught up in economic crime, its chief executive has warned.
SRA fines overhaul “of grave concern” to solicitors
There is “much” in how the Solicitors Regulation Authority will implement changes to its fines regime which “should be of grave concern to the profession”, Birmingham Law Society has warned.
Knights partner fined after assault and drink-drive convictions
A partner at listed law firm Knights convicted of assault by beating and separately drink driving has been fined £1,700 by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
Ex-solicitor siblings fail in High Court appeal against strike-offs
A sister and brother struck off as solicitors for their role in dubious investment schemes have failed in their appeal to the High Court.
Chambers “do not know money laundering status of barristers”
A significant number of chambers do not know whether their barristers have declared that they are subject to the money laundering regulations, the Bar Standards Board has warned.
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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