Regulation

Howard Kennedy has become the latest large London practice to face action from the Solicitors Regulation Authority after four solicitors and the firm itself were referred to a disciplinary tribunal over alleged accounts rules breaches.

The charity LawCare has called on the profession to reconsider its culture in the wake of the case this week of a solicitor who avoided being struck-off for dishonesty offences because of the pressure she was put under at work and her mental ill-health. It said the case of Sovani James depicted “a scenario that we are very familiar with”.

A solicitor who deliberately kept money from clients for barristers’ fees and told his accounts manager to cover it up – in a bid to prop up his firm – has been struck off by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal. The tribunal described as “extraordinary and incredible” evidence given in his defence.

The Bar Council has strongly attacked plans by the Bar Standards Board to force barristers to publish prices and internal complaints records. It said a requirement on chambers to publish hourly rates might actually end up decreasing transparency.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has decided against striking off a solicitor it found had created and backdated correspondence and lied to both her client and her employer, after finding that a root cause of her misconduct was the firm’s culture and the pressure it exerted on her to meet billing targets. Her mental ill-health was the other factor.

The Legal Services Consumer Panel has warned that the second phase of reforms to the Solicitors Regulation Authority Handbook would “compound existing complexities” and could further confuse consumers. It said the reforms were “unlikely to assist consumers, especially vulnerable ones, in choosing services in times of distress”.

A CILEx member and assistant solicitor have been rebuked and fined for not making clear that they were acting for the company that referred its customers to them, rather than the customers themselves. They also admitted not recommending that the customers seek independent legal advice.

A three-year qualified solicitor has been struck off for dishonestly fabricating documents to cover up the fact she failed to negotiate an increase to after-the-event insurance cover. This meant her client or firm faced having to pay the other side’s costs.

Students from white backgrounds are almost twice as likely as those from black backgrounds to pass the legal practice course (LPC), new figures have revealed. They also revealed a massive performance gap between LPC institutions, with one provider achieving a pass rate of 100%, compared to 30% for the worst performer.

Paralegals should be given rights of audience to enable them to do more legal aid work, an academic has argued. The head of the law and criminology department at the University of East London said “any future changes to legal aid policy should favour paralegals undertaking a larger amount of the caseload”.