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A solicitor who applied to vary a condition on his practising certificate made when a disciplinary tribunal suspended a five-year suspension from practice, now instead faces the possibility of having the ban activated after it emerged during his application that he had breached the condition.

The Bar will “truly be able to say that barristers are better educated in the law than solicitors” if the Solicitors Regulation Authority presses ahead with its reform of education, law lecturers have said in an excoriating response to the regulator’s consultation.

The judiciary has weighed into the debate about raising the small claims limit for personal injury by expressing “serious dismay” about the lack of consultation with judges and warning the government that any savings are likely to be outweighed by the significant extra burden litigants in person will put on the small claims court.

A ‘Global Britain’ summit is to be held in the spring to highlight “the vital role played by the legal services sector in underpinning our economy”, the Ministry of Justice announced today. Lord Chancellor Liz Truss also spoke out about the importance of cross-border cooperation in civil justice continuing after Brexit.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has thrown out charges against a solicitor for Rupert Murdoch’s News International accused of unreasonably advising and commissioning surveillance of two high-profile lawyers bringing phone hacking cases.

A web-based service which uses artificial intelligence (AI) rather than lawyers to give business clients crucial information about their contracts – and already works with Deliveroo – has secured a second round of funding from high-profile investors.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales has warned that it will “reconsider whether it wishes to remain as a legal services regulator” if the government insists that regulators are fully independent from their professional bodies. The long-awaited consultation on this is said to be imminent.

City solicitors, regional solicitors, consumers and the Law Society have all pushed back at the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s plans to reduce the two years that students have to spend in workplace training before qualifying.

Commercial law firms need to adopt a “redesigned approach to legal services”, including “paraprofessionals, technologists, information specialists, process managers and others” as well as lawyers, a major report has argued.

RSM has become the largest firm of accountants outside of the Big Four to launch a legal practice with an alternative business structure licence. The UK’s seventh largest provider of audit, tax and consulting services – which has revenues approaching £300m a year – will target mid-tier and owner-managed businesses with RSM Legal.