Compliance & Regulation

The traditional partnership is now the least popular form of law firm structure, while alternative business structures now make up more than 10% of all practices, new figures have shown.

The Bar Standards Board would be “ill advised” to take disciplinary action against barristers who take part in the strike action over legal aid rates, as dozens of QCs complain about the Lord Chief Justice.

The Bar Standards Board has told striking barristers that it will focus in particular on any harm caused, following the Lord Chief Justice’s warning that their actions may amount to misconduct

The Solicitors Regulation Authority is set to make it easier for law firm staff to blow the whistle on their employers, as part of its work on SLAPPs – of which it is investigating more than 20.

The whole profession needs to address “out of control” legal costs, a major new report has concluded, but costs lawyers have a significant role to play in exerting downward pressure on them.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has reported £161m worth of suspect transactions involving the profession to the National Crime Agency, with failures to check the source of funds the main trigger.

The founders of a specialist family law firm have spurned potential acquirors to transfer it instead into an employee ownership trust, saying the move sends a positive signal to would-be staff.

A solicitor who let one mistake on a property sale snowball so that it affected multiple transactions in a portfolio has been fined £10,000 – even though he preferred to be struck off.

A solicitor who used a disabled badge that did not belong to him nine times to park near his law firm has failed in his appeal against being struck off.

A former partner at listed law firm Gateley has been suspended for a year after accepting a £2,500 cash gift from a client and later asking the client for an introduction fee.