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The former chair of the Law Society’s land law and conveyancing committee, who was struck off last summer, has helped his wife set up an unregulated law firm, it has emerged. Richard Barnett, former senior partner of Southport firm Barnetts, is a consultant at Legal Heroes.

Cardiff-based Capital Law has today launched a £50m fund – backed by a hedge fund – to help its clients pursue litigation, in a first for a law firm. Senior partner Chris Nott said the fund had already helped a small business sue a government department for £1m and another client bring a professional negligence claim against one of the big four accountants.

Legal privilege could cause in-house lawyers a major problem if the Financial Conduct Authority does bring them within its new accountability regime for senior managers, they have been warned.

A solicitor involved in the 2011 litigation between Russian oligarchs Boris Berezovsky and Roman Abramovich has been fined £50,000 by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal for entering into what was then an unlawful contingency fee agreement, under which he would have netted tens of millions of pounds had Mr Berezovsky succeeded.

The number of complaints about lawyers has fallen to its lowest level since the opening of the Legal Ombudsman, its much-delayed annual report and accounts have shown. The delay was caused by the continuing problems with LeO’s accounts, which for the second year running have been qualified by the National Audit Office over nearly £250,000 paid to staff in benefits.

The Court of Appeal has reduced by almost two-thirds the balance awarded to the seller of a law firm by the High Court, after ruling that – among other things – the trial judge had been wrong not to award the buyer damages for a misrepresentation of the firm’s finances.

Business as usual “is not an option for many, if indeed any, traditional legal service providers”, the Law Society has warned today in a major report on what the legal market may look like in 2020. It said that the opportunities for solicitors in the coming years “cannot be distinguished from the opportunities for other types of lawyer, or non-lawyer-owned businesses”.

A law firm owner did not mislead the Solicitors Regulation Authority over the financial difficulties his practice was facing, even though he was reliant on loans from a senior solicitor to keep it afloat, the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has ruled.

The Financial Conduct Authority is to consult on whether general counsel and other in-house lawyers in banks, building societies and credit unions fall within its new accountability regime for senior managers. The FCA said some general counsel were concerned about being forced to disclose privileged information.

A solicitor who described her behaviour as “immature, foolish and wrong” in lying to a potential employer has been suspended by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal. She upgraded her law degree from 2:2 to 2:1 in order to get an interview with the Army Legal Services.