Compliance & Regulation
Revealed: PM Law collapse set to cost profession £30m
The SRA Compensation Fund is to pay out £30m to clients of collapsed Sheffield-based PM Law, it has emerged. It has contributed to the 78% increase in funding required.
Solicitor banned from COFA role over multiple rule breaches
A senior solicitor has been reprimanded and banned from being a compliance officer for finance and administration for a year over multiple rule breaches.
SRA asked: Why aren’t you approving M&A deals?
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has been asked to explain why it is requiring only notification of impending mergers and acquisitions, rather than its approval.
Barrister fined for racist “goat farmer” remarks
An experienced criminal law barrister has been reprimanded and fined for an “outburst of racist language” when talking to a trainee police officer.
Trainee used Home Office second job to access immigration files
A solicitor who had a second job at the Home Office while a trainee and used it to access the visa application files of clients and family members has been suspended.
Strike off for solicitor who backdated letter and blamed laptop
A solicitor has been struck off for creating letters to mislead both his opposite number and his own firm in a bid to cover up his failure to acknowledge service.
Big spike in competence-related complaints to the SRA
Reports to the Solicitors Regulation Authority about solicitors’ competence rose by 48% to over 4,000 last year, the regulator has revealed.
SDT refuses to lift conditions on “grossly negligent” solicitor
A solicitor who was suspended for a year after she was found to have been “grossly negligent” has failed in a bid to get conditions removed from her practising certificate.
Fine for barrister who “should have learnt” from previous rudeness
A barrister who should have learnt from a previous disciplinary offence that his rudeness “demeans” himself and could damage “the Bar as a whole” has been fined.
Judge “should have fined” barrister for driving death conviction
A High Court judge should not have replaced a suspension imposed by a Bar disciplinary tribunal on a barrister jailed for causing death by dangerous driving with no order at all.
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
