Regulation

A man who tried to get a vulnerable client to loan him money – shortly after the will-writing firm he worked for became an alternative business structure – has been banned from working in the profession after it reported him to its new regulator.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has struck off a solicitor who borrowed £125,000 from longstanding clients to bail out his failing business and failed to mention that his wife had a prior charge over the firm’s assets. He also did not insist they take independent legal advice.

Alternative business structures are far more likely to invest in their businesses than non-ABSs, research in the licensed conveyancer community has suggested. The survey provided an unprecedented snapshot of how this part of the legal market operates, including what it charges.

Bar Standards Board (BSB) entity regulation is “significantly cheaper and simpler” for sole practitioners and better for clients, according to a solicitor whose start-up law firm is to be regulated by the BSB. She said its regulation was “more client friendly” than that of the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

The High Court has overturned a disciplinary finding against a barrister after finding that the Bar Standards Board “seriously mishandled” the case. It was also very critical of the disciplinary tribunal for allowing a crucial statement as hearsay evidence.

A solicitor who hid a wasted costs order against his firm by faking a fee invoice on another matter so as to create a surplus he used to pay it, has been struck off. He said he had been too embarrassed to admit the £1,500 wasted costs order to his managers.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has asked the Competition and Markets Authority for advice on how it could stimulate more use of comparison websites in the legal market, saying there was consumer demand for more of such tools to help consumers choose lawyers.

Barrister Tariq Rehman, still the only lawyer to be ‘named and shamed’ by the Legal Ombudsman for his complaints record, has been disbarred after the third separate disciplinary tribunal in less than a month. He had previously been suspended and barred from accepting public access work.

A notarial firm based in Norwich has become the first to be regulated as an alternative business structure by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. The move was triggered by the decision to appoint its first non-notary employees earlier this year.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has forced a solicitor and the regulator to increase the sanction they had agreed he should receive, after concluding that it was too lenient. He was in the dock for failing, as his firm’s COFA, to report serious accounts rules breaches to the SRA.