Regulation

Almost a quarter of pupil barristers say they are experiencing “some financial hardship” during the pandemic, but a lack of networking opportunities was the main problem they identified.

Former government minister David Heath takes over as the new chair of the Costs Lawyer Standards Board this week, arguing for greater protection of the costs lawyer profession.

A solicitor who plundered his firm’s client account for nearly £400,000, while failing to redeem a mortgage or pay stamp duty as required, has been struck off by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.

The Bar Standards Board has been urged to give disciplinary tribunals a clear and immediate message that they can depart from the current sanctions guidance for sexual misconduct cases.

HM Land Registry published its first Digital Identity Standard last week, offering conveyancers a ‘safe harbour’ if they use it to verify their client’s identity digitally.

Stonewall sought to pressure a leading chambers to remove a barrister who was highly critical of the LGBT charity’s approach to transgender rights, it has emerged.

A solicitor who tried to “juggle” client money to meet her firm’s needs, and to claim that purchases from a cosmetics website were for the business, has been struck off.

The former Counsel General for Wales has struck out on his own as a sole practitioner and embraced direct access, saying it is “bordering on Luddite” for barristers to ignore it.

A solicitor’s misconduct cannot negate a non-solicitor employee’s misconduct or shield them from being banned from working for law firms, the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has ruled.

The High Court’s much-debated ruling on former Freshfields partner Ryan Beckwith “does little to offer any useful clarity” on the boundary between solicitors’ professional and personal lives, a white paper has argued. The paper, produced by regulation specialists at City… Read More