Compliance & Regulation

A solicitor who entered into a damages-based agreement with a family law client and pursued her for costs under it has been fined £10,000 by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.

Only 10% of students who successfully completed the Bar professional training course last year had started a pupillage by the end of March 2021, according to new figures.

Covid did not significantly reduce the number of dissatisfied clients contacting the Legal Ombudsman but it hit the organisation’s ability to deal with them, according to figures out today.

A partner and law firm failed to spot a restrictive covenant on a purchase and then did not tell its developer client, continuing instead to act for him when litigation over it ensued.

A law firm has been rebuked after a failure to perform proper due diligence on the identity of a client – for which it relied on a third party – led to a fraudulent property sale.

A public access barrister who engaged in “unnecessarily hostile and antagonistic correspondence” with opposing solicitors has been suspended for six months.

A law firm chief executive who lost his claim that he was fired for making protected disclosures has escaped a costs order even though a tribunal said it had no reasonable prospects of success.

There is near unanimity among the public that lawyers should have to demonstrate more actively than now that they remain competent throughout their careers, the Legal Services Board has found.

A family law practice started by two solicitors has divorced the Bar Standards Board as its regulator and taken up with the Solicitors Regulation Authority after difficulties beset the relationship.

The barrister suspended from the innovative family law business she founded after being accused of making racist comments about the latest Royal baby has returned to work.