Compliance & Regulation
Tribunal rejects return to roll for ex-solicitor 30 years after leaving
The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has rejected an application for restoration to the roll from an ex-solicitor who it had sanctioned three times and had been convicted of fraud.
Ex-regulator predicts big firm listing and urges fast lawtech approvals
A top-10 law firm will float on the stock market in the next couple of years, a senior former legal regulator has predicted. He also argued for rapid regulatory authorisation for lawtech start-ups.
Mishcon puts listing on ice as tribunal explains firm’s £25,000 fine
Mishcon de Reya was in the news last week as its planned stock market listing was delayed and the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal published the reasons for fining the London firm £25,000.
Number of pupil barristers rebounds after Covid-related slump
The number of pupil barristers has rebounded after the pandemic sent it crashing, while women increasingly dominate the junior end of the Bar, new figures have shown.
US should “prod” UK into action over oligarch enablers like lawyers
The US and its allies should take “significant steps to crack down on the Western enablers of Russian kleptocracy” such as law firms, an influential American think tank has argued.
BSB considers regulating intermediaries after Absolute Barrister collapse
The Bar Standards Board is considering whether intermediaries to direct access barristers should come within its regulatory control following the demise of Absolute Barrister.
Immigration solicitor certified LPA without checking client’s capacity
An immigration solicitor certified a lasting power of attorney for a walk-in client without checking his capacity, allowing the man’s son and attorney to misuse some of his money.
Bid to improve consistency of sanctions for sexual and racial misconduct
The Legal Services Board is aiming to reduce inconsistencies in the sanctions imposed across the legal profession in cases such as sexual misconduct, racial harassment and bullying.
Barrister suspended for lewd comments to mini-pupil fails in appeal
The High Court has rejected an appeal from a criminal law barrister suspended for six months by a Bar disciplinary tribunal for lewd comments to a female mini-pupil.
Accountancy body refused permission to exit probate regulation
The Legal Services Board has refused to ‘de-designate’ an accountancy body as a probate regulator over concerns that its members are now practising unregulated.
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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