Compliance & Regulation

Only the biggest and smallest legal regulators – the Solicitors Regulation Authority and Costs Lawyer Standards Board – have ‘passed’ their annual performance assessments by the Legal Services Board.

The Home Office has rejected changes proposed by the Law Commission almost five years ago, which would have introduced statutory guidance on the suspicious activity reports.

Ministers have asked the Legal Services Board to outline how it plans to approach the regulation of artificial intelligence in the sector by the end of April.

An experienced solicitor has been fined more than £10,000 for taking payments from a client into his own bank account after striking an agreement with the SRA.

The Information Commissioner’s Office has approved a certification scheme which it says will provide law firms, chambers and others with “certainty” when processing personal data.

Reforms to the way legal services are regulated north of the border, including the introduction of alternative business structures with majority non-lawyer ownership, moved a step closer last week.

The “lack of energy” from legal regulators to deal with what appears to be strategic failures of regulation is becoming “mildly ridiculous”, the chief executive of the LSB has argued.

Solicitors are still engaging in dubious practices around non-disclosure agreements and strategic lawsuits against public participation, despite regulatory warnings, it was claimed last week.

There is a “higher level of confidence” among law firm buyers and “clear signs that the scale and pace” of M&A will increase in 2024, a report has found.

Members of the public may “reasonably question” the ‘wait and see’ approach of the SRA to disciplinary action in the Post Office scandal, a regulatory expert and former SRA manager has said.