Latest news
Solicitor used residual balances to pay salaries and VAT bills
A solicitor who was a major figure in miners’ compensation claims has been fined for using £140,000 of residual balances in his client account to pay salaries and tax bills.
Rule will require solicitors to challenge colleagues’ improper behaviour
Solicitors will have a regulatory obligation to challenge colleagues who treat others unfairly or without respect as part of a plan to beef up the rules on health and wellbeing at work.
LeO boss: Efforts to close complaints more quickly starting to work
Efforts to close cases more quickly are having a positive impact on the performance of the Legal Ombudsman, with an influx of new recruits set to speed up progress.
Solicitor struck off for lying to avoid paying legal aid debt
A solicitor who lied about not having a bank account or any income other than benefits to avoid having to repay a debt to the Legal Aid Agency (Lhas been struck off.
Ex-Mishcon partner accepts £17,500 fine for AML failures
The partner whose conduct contributed to the record £232,000 fine handed out to Mishcon de Reya has been fined £17,500 himself.
Firm fired Jewish employee after taking time off for religious holiday
A law firm has been ordered to pay a former Jewish employee £26,500 in damages after it fired him for not attending work when instructed, even though it was a religious holiday he had booked off.
Scottish law firm can be sued for negligence in England
A Scottish law firm, which has no offices south of the border, has failed in a jurisdiction challenge to halt a negligence claim over advice a solicitor gave over a Cornish wind farm project.
A&O’s multi-strand strategy to improve diversity of barristers it uses
Broadening the exposure of its solicitors to new barristers, to avoid them just instructing the same counsel, is among the initiatives Allen & Overy is using to improve the diversity of those it instructs.
“Terminate your retainer” if client accepts pre-med whiplash offer
A lawyer whose client accepts a pre-medical offer to settle a whiplash claim against advice would have to terminate their retainer to comply with the Civil Liability Act 2018, a barrister has warned.
Exclusive: Mishcon de Reya drops B Corp status after just seven months
Mishcon de Reya has withdrawn from the B Corporation initiative – for businesses that balances purpose with profit – just months after becoming only the third law firm to achieve it.
Blog
A letter from the SRA? Your first reaction matters
An email from the SRA has a way of rearranging a working day. It arrives in the same inbox as everything else, often in the same measured tone, yet it carries a different weight.
Regulate sole practices on evidence, not turnover
For a sole practice, the SRA’s plan that I cannot hold a compliance role if my firm has more than £600,000 of turnover is not a measure of risk. It is a ceiling on growth.
Is Google becoming pay-to-play for law firms?
For years, law firms have been told that SEO is the long-term alternative to paying for every click. That principle hasn’t disappeared but search results have changed significantly.
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