Compliance & Regulation
Judge calls for guidance on rights of unqualified agency advocates
County court judges would benefit from “more authoritative guidance” from the higher courts on whether unqualified solicitor’s agents have rights of audience, a circuit judge has said.
Partner fined after charitable trusts used client account as bank
A charity law specialist who allowed two charitable trusts to use his firm’s client account as a banking facility has been fined £2,000 by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
Regulators must tackle “out-of-date” lawyers, LSB says
Regulators must take action to ensure that lawyers are not operating with “out-of-date” skills or knowledge, the Legal Services Board has said.
FCA toughens up new claims management company ‘phoenixing’ ban
The Financial Conduct Authority is going ahead with a tougher version of a ban on ‘phoenixing’ by financial services claims management companies, which will come into force next month.
Oversight regulator “very concerned” about ethics of commercial lawyers
The LSB has expressed “very significant concerns” about the professional ethics of in-house and commercial lawyers in the wake of a series of incidents which raised “difficult ethical questions”.
QC suspended over failure to disclose key evidence to defence
A very senior criminal law QC has been suspended for a year over a decision not to disclose surveillance evidence which ultimately led to a conviction being overturned on appeal.
Complaints about SRA rise on back of major law firm closure
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has been hit by a wave of complaints relating to its closure of law firm consolidator Kingly Solicitors in the summer of 2020.
Tribunals agree to “deterrent” sanctions for sexual and racial misconduct
The disciplinary tribunals for solicitors and barristers have agreed to impose “deterrent” sanctions for sexual and racial misconduct and other forms of discrimination, bullying or harassment.
IBA project to probe role of lawyers as “ethical gatekeepers”
The International Bar Association has launched a project to examine the role of lawyers as “ethical gatekeepers” within wider society and help clarify their ethical responsibilities at work.
Email phishing and ransomware on the rise, SRA warns firms
Email-based fraud is on the rise and is the dominant method criminals use to access law firms’ systems, with ransomware was also increasing and evolving, according to the SRA.
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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