Compliance & Regulation

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.

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Regulators must take action to ensure that lawyers are not operating with “out-of-date” skills or knowledge, the Legal Services Board has said.

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.

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”.

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.

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.

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.

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-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.