Compliance & Regulation
Practising barrister named a tax avoidance promoter in HMRC first
A practising barrister has for the first time been added to HM Revenue & Customs’ list of tax avoidance promoters.
Public access barristers used mainly for advice, not representation
People who instruct barristers through the public access scheme are much more likely to be seeking advice than representation in court, new research has indicated.
Strike-off for solicitor who deleted and lied about email
A solicitor at a national law firm who deleted a client’s email from its document management system “to try to cover up that he had not dealt with it” has been struck off.
Two-thirds of law firms breaking residual balance rules
A leading firm of accountants says two-thirds of law firms whose books it examined for regulatory reports had broken the rules on residual balances.
“Weed out chancers” with £50 Legal Ombudsman complaint fee
The Legal Ombudsman should introduce a nominal complaint fee of £50 to “weed out those whom one might describe as ‘chancers’”, Birmingham Law Society has proposed.
Solicitor who lied to client “to buy herself time” is struck off
A solicitor who admitted lying to a client about receiving a medical report “to buy herself time” has been struck off by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.
SDT rejects managing partner’s bid to blame junior solicitor for errors
A managing partner has failed to convince the SDT to blame the one-year qualified solicitor he was supervising for failures on a conveyancing transaction at an undervalue.
Another failure for SRA in Daily Mail sting cases
Two of the three solicitors accused by the Daily Mail of offering to help an undercover reporter concoct a false asylum claim have now been cleared of misconduct.
Suspension for solicitor who acted on both sides of transaction
A solicitor has been suspended over a “dereliction of duty” that saw him act on both sides of the transfer of an elderly and vulnerable client’s sole residence to a neighbour for nil consideration.
Tribunal strikes out immigration adviser’s appeal over failed exam
The First-tier Tribunal has struck out an appeal by an immigration adviser against the Immigration Advice Authority after she failed an exam.
Blog
Why law firms are getting AI supervision wrong
The profession’s response to AI supervision failures misunderstands the nature of LLM output – there needs to be for a shift in the culture.
Beyond the PII premium – rethinking risk
Professional indemnity insurance renewal is often treated as an annual pricing exercise. But it is also a chance to show how effectively you identify, manage and mitigate risk.
The AI governance gap in law firms and why it matters now
A third of law firms are already using AI tools with no formal policy in place to govern how AI gets used, what data goes into it, or who’s accountable when something goes wrong.
Reports
Associates
