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Wanda Goldwag – a marketing specialist turned regulator with a connection to two high-profile alternative business structures – has been named as the Legal Services Board’s preferred candidate to chair the Office for Legal Complaints, the body that oversees the Legal Ombudsman.

Shares in Slater & Gordon (S&G) soared overnight – albeit from an historically low base – after it told investors that its new lenders “fully intend to implement a solvent restructure of the company”. Its share price rose 46% to 13c, having dipped to an all-time low of 7c a fortnight ago.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has struck off a solicitor who was convicted for conspiring to supply cocaine and sentenced to three years in prison, despite his plea for a second chance. He was himself an addict and claimed he was trying to rid himself of the drug when he supplied one gram to an undercover police officer.

The expansion of consolidator Metamorph Law has continued after it took on the private client practice of a firm in Hampshire, its first venture in the south of England. Some 17 fee-earners and six support staff have set up new offices in Southampton, Lymington and Basingstoke.

A solicitor convicted of stalking her husband’s former lover has been fined £1,000 by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal. In what it described as “wholly exceptional circumstances”, the tribunal said that “the reputation of the profession is enhanced by some consideration of humanity”.

A criminal law barrister whose case papers were found in bin bags has been fined by a Bar disciplinary tribunal, while the Information Commissioner’s Office has fined another barrister after a software update on her home computer placed hundreds of unencrypted client documents online.

A law firm which was duped into paying away the £333,532 proceeds of a property sale after failing to confirm a client’s email changing their bank details – which turned out to be faked – has been rebuked by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

The Treasury has rejected an argument by the Solicitors Regulation Authority that it needs full separation from the Law Society to avoid any interference in its operation of anti-money laundering rules. Instead it indicated that operational independence – which the regulator already has – was sufficient.

The Legal Services Board is to have a new chair after incumbent Sir Michael Pitt took himself out of the running for a second three-year term, Legal Futures can reveal. His predecessor was appointed for a second term without the position being advertised, but this time there will be an open competition.

City law firm Kennedys has launched an extended version of its virtual defence lawyer, which for the first time enables clients to send cases directly to counsel without the need for a solicitor. The firm is currently building a more advanced version of litigation management system KLAiM using AI.