Compliance & Regulation

The possibility of a single regulator for all lawyers in Scotland – and the title of ‘lawyer’ having statutory protection – is being canvassed by the Scottish government.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has banned a string of non-solicitors from working in the profession for dishonesty, including theft of electronic devices, fabricating letters and faking a client’s signature.

A conveyancing solicitor who misled clients he was related on how their fees would be calculated has been fined by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

A solicitor’s failure to conduct proper client ID checks and to confirm that the client owned the property he said he did inadvertently facilitated a fraud, it has emerged.

A barrister convicted of failing to disclose a change in her circumstances for the purposes of council tax, and who was then found to have lied at a re-hearing, has been disbarred.

Nearly one in three barristers have personal experience of bullying, harassment and/or discrimination in the past two years, Bar Council research has revealed.

The government has rejected a call from the Solicitors Regulation Authority that small law firms should have to pay its new economic crime levy.

More than 10% of law firms whose compliance with anti-money laundering rules was checked by the Solicitors Regulation Authority in the last year have been referred for investigation

A “patronising” solicitor who made multiple “racially, ethnically or religiously motivated comments” to young women at an event – whom he later accused of being ‘woke’ – has been struck off.

The Bar Standards Board, the Solicitors Regulation Authority and CILEx Regulation have joined forces in a bid to improve the standard of practice in coroner’s courts.