Latest news

Two partners at a high street firm have each been fined £35,000 by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal for multiple accounts rule breaches – very much at the higher end of the financial penalties it usually hands out. One was also found to have breached the money laundering regulations and both failed to act with integrity.

The president of the Competition Appeal Tribunal has reproached the Law Society for a “deeply unimpressive” explanation of its failure to disclose all the documents it should have done in the Socrates case. It is the second time that the society’s conduct of the case has been singled out for criticism by Mr Justice Roth.

The senior partner of a south London law firm has been sanctioned by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal for unprofessional and “completely unacceptable” correspondence with a litigant in person, in which he accused her of lying, disgraceful behaviour and arguing with a judge “like a fisherwoman”.

Insurance law firm BLM has set up a specialist data analytics team to help its lawyers make better predictions about their cases. Headed by a solicitor and a data scientist, it uses machine learning, a form of artificial intelligence (AI), to predict the length, cost and result of litigation.

Alternative business structures account for just 5% of all law firms but nearly 12% of total turnover in a market worth £22.3bn, the annual snapshot of the solicitors’ profession has shown. It also revealed that women will become the majority of practising solicitors this year.

The High Court will hear an appeal by the Solicitors Regulation Authority later this month for tougher sanctions on two West Midlands solicitors, suspended for their involvement in a collapsed Brazilian property investment scheme. But the scheme’s liquidators have “reluctantly” decided not pursue legal action against their firm.

The Law Society has issued its first slavery and human trafficking statement, in compliance with the Modern Slavery Act 2015, emphasising its commitment to ensuring that “such practices have no place within its supply chain or other activities”.

The fall-out from the decision that the Law Society breached competition law looks set to last for several more months after the Competition Appeal Tribunal laid out the timetable for determining damages. It also ordered the society to pay Socrates Training’s costs up to a maximum of the approved budget of £230,000.

Partners at a leading personal injury law firm have lost a professional negligence action against the accountants who recommended they sign up to two ultimately unsuccessful tax mitigation schemes. They succeeded at every stage of their claim only to fall at the last when the judge ruled that they brought the action out of time.

Hudgell Solicitors – the personal injury firm that publicised its willingness to buy firms, departments and files through the website webuyanyfiles.com – has another three transactions in the wings, which will take it to 35 deals since the Jackson reforms were implemented in 2013.