Regulation

The Court of Appeal yesterday spelt out the higher standards to which solicitors are held in defining what “integrity” means for the purposes of disciplinary action. It said integrity “connotes adherence to the ethical standards of one’s own profession” and involved “more than mere honesty”.

National law firm Simpson Millar has accepted a rebuke and £2,000 fine from the Solicitors Regulation Authority for promoting stamp duty land tax avoidance schemes which cost HM Revenue & Customs over £4.5m. The sanction is the most the SRA can hand out without referring the firm to a disciplinary tribunal.

Disclosing documents relating to disciplinary proceedings against Leigh Day for its handling of Iraq war claims would involve a manual search of 5,000 documents and cost over £10,000, the Ministry of Justice has argued. The details emerged in a ruling by the Information Commissioner’s Office.

The Court of Appeal has rejected a City law firm’s second appeal against being shut down by the Solicitors Regulation Authority over improper charges. Lord Justice Singh said there was “an air of unreality” about the appeal by Neumans against the High Court ruling.

More than one in ten law firms assessed for compliance with government money laundering obligations brought in last June have been referred to the disciplinary process, a proportion which if extrapolated to the wider profession would amount to over 1,200 firms.

A solicitor jailed for his role in a Ponzi scheme – in which he used his professional credentials to persuade people to invest– has been struck off. Stephen Pickard, formerly of Leeds firm Lupton Fawcett, is currently serving an eight-year prison sentence.

A well-known London law firm that let one of its partners use its client account as a banking facility, with millions of pounds going in and out, has been fined £35,000 by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal. The partner was fined £15,000, but the tribunal made no order in relation to three other partners who became inadvertently involved in the events.

A barrister has been disbarred for lying about her qualifications and experience, including a claim that she had saved 10 men from the death penalty in Malawi. Anisah Ahmed was trying both to obtain a pupillage and persuade the Bar Standards Board to reduce its length.

A solicitor compelled to give evidence about a billionaire Russian client’s assets, and forbidden from revealing his court appearance to the client, has lost his appeal against those orders. He complained about being given just three days’ notice to attend court, which he described as an “ambush”, and that the issues he was questioned about were covered by legal advice privilege.

The government has issued a wide-ranging response to criticisms of whether its plan to ban cold-calling will be effective, saying that making the Financial Conduct Authority responsible for it would risk “confusing consumers and industry”.