Regulation

The High Court has rejected the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s bid to increase the sanction imposed on a solicitor convicted of transferring criminal property after being taken in by a charismatic conman posing as the Pope’s banker. She was fined £2,000 by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.

The Bar Standards Board is considering the impact of the HM Courts and Tribunal Service’s proposals for longer sitting hours on the diversity of the profession, the only legal regulator so far to take a step, however tentative, into an issue that has generated bitter opposition from the profession.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority is to change its indemnity insurance rules to make it easier for law firms to switch regulator, it announced yesterday. In a bid to encourage competition, the SRA will ditch the requirement that firms switching to another approved regulator have to buy run-off cover.

A former Solicitor General has contrasted government pressure on the Solicitors Regulation Authority to prosecute human rights firm Leigh Day with its hands-off approach to solicitors criticised by Parliament for advising companies on tax avoidance.

A solicitor who “misused his position and duped his business partner” – leading to the SRA Compensation Fund paying about nearly £170,000 – has been struck off by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal. In one instance, the second partner had withdrawn £21,000 from the firm’s bank and brought it back to the office in her handbag.

There is a “clear perception” among most family law clients that barristers are more expensive than solicitors and other legal services providers, major research commissioned by the Bar Standards Board has found. Only 13% of those surveyed used a barrister at all, and just 12% of these contacted the barrister directly.

A partner who left London law firm Winckworth Sherwood after harassing female colleagues at its Christmas party last year has been rebuked by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. John Burnand, “whilst intoxicated, behaved in an inappropriate, physical manner towards several female members of the firm’s staff”.

A man who posed as a barrister to con his victims out of thousands of pounds has been jailed for two years. Leonard Ogilvy, 51, of south London was found guilty at Southwark Crown Court of three counts of wilfully pretending to be a barrister and three counts of fraud by false representation.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has warned solicitors that professional negligence claims based on unbundled services have fuelled a “rapidly developing area of case law”. The regulator also revealed that it has already allowed a solicitor to practise from an unregulated business, a reform that has attracted stinging criticism.

The co-founder of a law firm who received a police caution after punching a female colleague in the face has been rebuked by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. The regulator has also rebuked a partner at a leading regional law firm for breaching client confidentiality.