Regulation
Barristers urged to be “active bystanders” in fight against harassment
A project encouraging barristers to be ‘active bystanders’ – speaking out and standing against abusive, bullying and belittling behaviour – has been launched under the name ‘All Rise’.
Solicitors’ community interest company to donate all profits to charity
Two private client solicitors have launched a community interest company that will donate all of its profits to charity. Not for Profit Law will give its profits to Norfolk Community Foundation
Review of Bar exam chaos points finger at BSB and Pearson VUE
The Bar Standards Board and electronic testing company Pearson VUE have both come under fire from the independent review of last year’s Bar professional training course exams.
Solicitors Regulation Authority eyes £2m budget boost
The Solicitors Regulation Authority is set to increase its budget by £2m in the next year as it looks to step up work on issues ranging from anti-money laundering to supporting lawtech.
Trial set for “most serious allegations” made against solicitors in civil courts
What a High Court judge said yesterday were among “the most serious allegations ever levelled against English solicitors in civil proceedings” will be heard in January 2023, he has decided.
EAT upholds ‘worker’ status for barrister tribunal chair
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has upheld a ruling that a barrister who sat as a tribunal chair for the Nursing and Midwifery Council was a ‘worker’ and entitled to sickness and holiday pay.
Barrister fined for submitting misleading witness statement
A barrister whose misleading witness statement led the High Court to rule that an arbitration award was obtained by fraud has been fined by a disciplinary tribunal.
Concerns mount over use of review websites to judge quality of lawyers
The Bar Council and Council for Licensed Conveyancers have warned of the dangers of using “one-sided” consumer reviews to assess the quality of lawyers.
Bar set to beef up “lenient” sanctions for misconduct
Plans to beef up the sanctions imposed on barristers for serious offences – including sexual misconduct, harassment and discrimination – were unveiled yesterday.
Contempt threat “seriously questionable”, says sub-postmasters’ barrister
The barrister who withdrew from the sub-postmasters’ appeal after disclosing a document to the police has described the threat of contempt proceedings he faced as “seriously questionable”.
Blog
Change in regulator shouldn’t make AML less of a priority
While SRA fines for AML have been climbing, many in the profession aren’t confident they will get any relief from the FCA, a body used to dealing with a highly regulated industry.
There are 17 million wills waiting to be written
The main reason cited by people who do not have a will was a lack of awareness as to how to arrange one. As a professional community, we seem to be failing to get our message across.
The case for a single legal services regulator: why the current system is failing
From catastrophic firm collapses to endemic compliance failures, the evidence is mounting that the current multi-regulator model is fundamentally broken.
