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Slater & Gordon has withdrawn its predictions for the current financial year, saying profit is likely to be hit as a result of “slower than expected” case settlements in the UK. The problems are in the main S&G practice, along with the noise-induced hearing loss portfolio bought by the firm from Quindell.

Solicitors should abandon the concept of “perfection” and concentrate instead on improving their performance, a City training chief has said. The legal learning leader at Hogan Lovells said the firm was one of the first big practices to opt into the new non-point based CPD regime introduced in April.

The Office for Legal Complaints is to put in place a new performance plan for the Legal Ombudsman next year to tackle falling standards, it has emerged. Steve Green, chair of the OLC, promised things would be on an “upward trajectory” next year.

A pupil barrister who dishonestly copied his skeleton argument for a moot has been reprimanded and fined £1,000 by the Bar Standards Board – the strongest penalty meted out directly by the regulator this year.

The Legal Services Board has begun work on whether it could and should introduce a voluntary regulation scheme for currently unregulated legal services providers. As part of a wider package of work on unregulated providers, it is also to investigate in depth their role in the will writing and estate administration, family law, and intellectual property markets.

A Hull law firm has been closed by the Solicitors Regulation Authority because there was “reason to suspect dishonesty” on the part of a partner and member of staff. Companies House showed that HSBC has a fixed and floating charge over all of the firm’s assets.

Shareholders in Gateley – the first UK law firm to float – are to see the first fruits of their investment after the company announced an initial dividend on the back of strong first-half results. Gateley’s revenue for the six months to 31 October was up 10.9% to £29.6m, with profit before tax rising 11.5% to £2.9m.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has again criticised the way the Solicitors Regulation Authority prosecuted a case against a solicitor, after deciding that a partner who had a “genuine but misguided” belief about the status of one of his employees had not acted dishonestly in what he told his insurer.

The Bar Standard Board expects to regulate just 20 alternative business structures each year in the first three years after it becomes a licensing authority. Its prediction likely reflects caution prompted by the weaker than expected take-up of BSB-regulated entities.

The law firm acting on behalf of hundreds of investors in Quindell has today issued its letter of claim over alleged misrepresentations made by the company. Your Legal Friend – the consumer-facing brand of Liverpool firm Camps – has issued on behalf of an initial claimant group of 342 retail investors.