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The government needs to step in to mandate reforms that promise to revolutionise the home buying and selling process, while conveyancing fees have risen, a roundtable has heard.

A solicitor convicted of seven counts of fraud, involving goods worth £10,600 – including fireworks and tickets for the Grand National – has been struck off.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has put aside up to £550,000 to give staff a one-off pay boost to help with the cost-of-living crisis, it has emerged.

Unregulated legal business The Law Boutique has teamed up with a magic circle law firm Linklaters and its own contract management platform to provide companies with an “holistic” service.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority is facing “challenges” in retaining staff in its anti-money laundering team, in part because it cannot compete with private sector salaries.

More than half of conveyancing firms (57%) lack “digital maturity”, a report has found, with one in five firms (22%) not accepting electronic signatures.

A solicitor who gave 115 clients the wrong advice about the ground rent provisions in the leases of properties they were buying – because of an incorrect precedent – has been fined £15,000.

Case and costs management should be separated, and costs judges tasked with setting the budget and also summarily assessing incurred costs, the Senior Costs Judge has suggested.

The Bar Standards Board is to step up efforts to encourage more reporting of bullying and harassment but says ultimately the onus is on the Bar to change its culture.

There is “no real appetite” among consumer law firms for an accreditation scheme or other recognition denoting the quality of their transparency, a report has found.