Compliance & Regulation
Consumer panel and Bar Council at odds over future of aptitude test
The evidence for abolishing the Bar course aptitude test is “compelling” as it has failed to achieve its purpose, the Legal Services Consumer Panel has said.
Tribunal: Barrister’s ‘fundamentally dishonest’ claim was not fraudulent
A barrister found to have brought a fundamentally dishonest personal injury claim was not disbarred after a tribunal did not accept that his case was actually fraudulent.
Solicitor who used client account like a “piggy bank” is struck off
A solicitor who plundered her client account to meet her personal financial obligations and her ex-partner’s car debts has been struck off by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.
Conveyancing giant told to improve communication after cyber-attack
The country’s largest conveyancing group has been told by its regulator to improve communication with clients in the wake of a paralysing cyber-attack this week.
“Significant weaknesses” in legal regulators’ approach to money laundering
There are “differing levels of achievement and some significant weaknesses” among the UK’s legal regulators in their approach to anti-money laundering, their oversight body has reported.
“Lessons for other legal regulators” from Faculty Office review
The Legal Services Board has said other legal regulators could learn lessons from a highly critical review it has published on the Faculty Office, the regulator of notaries.
Not our job to help retired solicitors “sleep easy”, says SRA
It is not the job of the Solicitors Regulation Authority to help retired solicitors “sleep easy” by protecting them from historic negligence claims, its director of regulatory policy has warned.
Commercial lawyer fined for providing banking facility to client
A solicitor at a commercial law firm in Cardiff has been fined £24,000 for recklessly providing a banking facility for a client over a period of almost two years.
Partner struck off for telling “outrageous” lies to SRA
A tribunal has condemned a partner’s “outrageous” lies to the Solicitors Regulation Authority, made in a bid to frustrate its investigation into her firm.
Less than half of barristers happy with their working lives
Only 47% of barristers feel generally content with their working lives, a report for the Bar Council has found, while just 45% felt they could “cope with the competing demands” of their job.
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.
Reports
Associates
