Regulation

The Divisional Court has thrown out an appeal by a solicitor disciplined after representing a client in court when he was not allowed to – and claimed he was instead acting as a McKenzie Friend and so beyond the regulator’s reach.

The Bar Council has appointed Thrings and Veale Wasborough Vizards as the first members of a new panel that will help barristers “delicately” recover unpaid fees from solicitors. More firms are expected to join the panel, and they offer a choice of payment options, including conditional fee agreements and fixed fees.

An eminent tax lawyer and former partner at leading London law firms has been struck off following his conviction for multiple pornography offences – but he continues to practise from an unregulated entity. He is also a former president of the Chartered Institute of Taxation.

Small law firms should not be exempt from any new requirement to publish complaints data, the Legal Services Consumer Panel has argued. It said the information should be incorporated into the beefed-up ‘digital register’ planned by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

One of the country’s top white-collar crime lawyers and a former head of legal affairs of GCHQ have been fined for advising a client to remove material from their premises ahead of a police search. It was the Crown Prosecution Service that complained to the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

A solicitor acting for a father in a care case has been reported to the Solicitors Regulation Authority after it emerged she was in a personal relationship with a witness. Her Honour Judge Cameron in Medway Family Court said it was the third occasion such an instance had occurred with this solicitor.

The decision of the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal yesterday to strike off human rights lawyer Phil Shiner over his conduct of abuse claims against British soldiers in Iraq has received unprecedented coverage across the media today and arguably put the entire legal profession on the back foot.

Two barristers have launched a Bar Standards Board-regulated entity offering commercial advice as an alternative to traditional chambers, hoping to pass on the savings from low overheads to clients. Lorna Hackett and David Dabbs have formed Hampshire-based Hackett & Dabbs.

The Bar Standards Board has found itself under attack from multiple directions this week, including the Supreme Court announcing yesterday that it would hear an appeal about a case involving claims of race discrimination in its disciplinary processes.

Relationships between CMCs and solicitors over holiday sickness claims are under investigation, the Claims Management Regulator revealed yesterday. It comes in the wake of the ABTA claiming that CMCs have moved onto holiday sickness cases as more lucrative sources of work than whiplash.