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The Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC) has set up an alternative business structure to provide legal services to its 500 member churches and other Christian groups. Edward Connor Solicitors, a charity regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, went live on 1 March and is named after FIEC’s founder, Edward Poole-Connor.

The judiciary has threatened to withdraw from the Online Court pilot – which could go public by the end of this month – if there are “any further false claims or data” about the project from Her Majesty’s Court and Tribunals Service. The pilot, for money claims under £10,000, could move from invitation-only to ‘public beta’ stage on 26 March.

The government’s eagerly awaited LASPO review is unlikely to be published by July, which was the original goal, justice secretary David Gauke admitted today. The Lord Chancellor has also made it clear that the Ministry of Justice would not be carrying out any of its own research as part of the review.

Lawyers will be vital to high-end fintech deals even after blockchain transactions become mainstream, according to a solicitor at the forefront of innovating with cutting-edge technology. He was speaking after helping to secure a pioneering use of the distributed ledger to transfer financial securities.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales has launched judicial review proceedings against the Ministry of Justice over the decision to deny its members the right to conduct litigation, advocacy and legal instruments work, Legal Futures can reveal.

National law firm Simpson Millar has accepted a rebuke and £2,000 fine from the Solicitors Regulation Authority for promoting stamp duty land tax avoidance schemes which cost HM Revenue & Customs over £4.5m. The sanction is the most the SRA can hand out without referring the firm to a disciplinary tribunal.

Disclosing documents relating to disciplinary proceedings against Leigh Day for its handling of Iraq war claims would involve a manual search of 5,000 documents and cost over £10,000, the Ministry of Justice has argued. The details emerged in a ruling by the Information Commissioner’s Office.

The Court of Appeal has rejected a City law firm’s second appeal against being shut down by the Solicitors Regulation Authority over improper charges. Lord Justice Singh said there was “an air of unreality” about the appeal by Neumans against the High Court ruling.

More than one in ten law firms assessed for compliance with government money laundering obligations brought in last June have been referred to the disciplinary process, a proportion which if extrapolated to the wider profession would amount to over 1,200 firms.

A solicitor jailed for his role in a Ponzi scheme – in which he used his professional credentials to persuade people to invest– has been struck off. Stephen Pickard, formerly of Leeds firm Lupton Fawcett, is currently serving an eight-year prison sentence.