Compliance & Regulation
£10m paid out last year to victims of solicitors’ dishonesty
The SRA Compensation Fund paid out more than £10m to the victims of solicitors’ financial dishonesty last year, a 37% increase on the previous 12 months, new figures have shown.
Gateley suffers loss of client data in cyber-attack
Client data has been stolen from Gateley in a cyber-attack, the listed law firm has revealed. The firm said it was “confident that the incident has been confined to a very small part of its data store”.
No duty on law firm to investigate client’s struck-off solicitor agent
A law firm was not under a duty to investigate a client’s agent in a property sale, who turned out to be a struck-off solicitor jailed for theft, the High Court has ruled.
SRA formally begins life as a separate corporate entity
The board of trustees and directors of Solicitors Regulation Authority Ltd met for the first time last week after agreeing the transfer of £9m in assets to the new company from the Law Society.
Ban for law firm revenue controller who diverted payments to own bank account
A law firm revenue controller given a suspended jail sentence after diverting £32,000 in payments meant for suppliers to his own bank account has been banned from working in the profession.
Solicitors fined for allowing firm to take on work beyond expertise
Two solicitors have been fined for allowing their firm to take on work in areas where they had no experience and accepting client money when it did not have a client account.
Law firms faced major premium rises in spring PII renewal season
The spring renewal season saw law firms pay a lot more for their PII, with the surge in conveyancing work a concern and contentious probate an increasing problem.
Signs of progress at Legal Ombudsman, figures show
Performance at the Legal Ombudsman is finally improving, with more cases being closed, but dealing with the backlog is only lengthening wait times for new complainants.
International innovation to inform ongoing competence reform
New forms of intervention introduced in other countries to ensure the ongoing competence of lawyers – such as annual assessments and greater self-reflection – will influence reform in England and Wales.
Tribunal refuses to restore sanctioned solicitor’s “pride”
The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has refused to remove conditions on the practising certificate of a 63-year-old solicitor who said he wanted to recover his “pride and dignity”.
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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