Compliance & Regulation

The possibility of negative interest rates moved a step closer yesterday amid continuing uncertainty over whether law firms could pass on to clients the cost of holding their money.

A solicitor whose “reckless mismanagement” of her law firm’s finances damaged the profession’s reputation has been struck off, and her COFA banned for “manifest incompetence”.

A solicitor who lied to a lender, a client, his law firm and the Land Registry to cover up the lack of progress made on his clients’ matters – but blamed his secretary – has been struck off.

New technologies such as biometrics, machine learning and artificial intelligence can now form part of the anti-money laundering armoury, law firms have been told.

A solicitor who was jailed for four years for money laundering offences has been readmitted to the roll after the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal found he had been “totally rehabilitated”.

A law firm which did the conveyancing work on two failed off-plan housing developments was not operating an unregulated collective investment scheme, the High Court has ruled.

A solicitor who lied to her client about the progress of her case and then to the Solicitors Regulation Authority about it, and later to professional indemnity insurers, has been struck off.

A solicitor who ‘witnessed’ the signatures of a client’s father that were already on property documents, without checking their authenticity, has been fined £20,000.

A “seriously inept” solicitor who transferred money to another law firm’s client account, in breach of a court order that his firm should hold it, has been fined £8,000.

Three partners have been fined for charging conveyancing clients for the firm’s indemnity insurance, as well as “variable sums” for filling out a simple standard form.