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A solicitor who qualified more than 50 years ago has agreed to remove his name from the roll after admitting to multiple rule breaches, including failing to register clients as owners of a property and pay the stamp duty land tax due. He then over-charged them for the work he did.

A former chief executive of Natural England is to take over as interim chairman of the Legal Services Board next week after Sir Michael Pitt’s term comes to an end without the recruitment exercise for his successor having even begun.

The High Court ruling last week that said a lack of integrity on the part of a solicitor is the same as dishonesty could cause regulators real problems when prosecuting cases where they are not sure they have enough to establish dishonesty, it has been claimed.

The Legal Ombudsman has pledged to avoid pursuing an “expansionist” strategy when considering expanding its jurisdiction, but nevertheless welcomed the Competition and Markets Authority’s suggestion that it could handle complaints against unregulated legal providers.

The Prisons and Courts Bill was today dropped ahead of the dissolution of Parliament as MPs prepare for June’s general election. The bill was set for the latest session in its committee stage this morning, but the debate did not happen after the government put forward a motion not to proceed with further consideration of the bill.

‘Professional’ paid McKenzie Friends associated with fathers’ rights groups play on their “uncertainty and sense of victimhood” to attract business, academic research has found, saying that there needed to be a code of conduct and a greater role for law school clinics in their place.

The Legal Services Board has said it expects frontline regulators to introduce compulsory “minimum disclosures” by law firms on price and service. The LSB was responding to the Competition and Market Authority market study of legal services.

New anti-money laundering regulations planned by the Treasury would impose “disproportionate and unnecessary” burdens on law firms, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has warned. It was particularly unhappy about a ‘criminality test’ for lawyers.

Insurance companies have referred 26 law firms to the Solicitors Regulation Authority in recent months through a new process that aims to “better facilitate exchange of information” between the regulator and the Insurance Fraud Bureau, it has emerged.

The failures which led to a record fine for Clyde & Co were “particularly glaring” as it was “a large and, previously, reputable firm”, the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has declared in approving the sanction. It emerged earlier this month that the City practice had been fined £50,000 but the full ruling has only just been published.