Regulation

The partners of a 41-year-old Black Country law firm have expressed their “bitter” disappointment at having to close down due to a dispute with their professional indemnity insurers. At the same time, four lawyers from Sanders & Co are facing the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal over their involvement in a complex overseas investment scheme.

A solicitor who failed in his attempt to challenge the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s closure of his alternative business structure is now to face a disciplinary tribunal, it has emerged. Michael John Elsdon is facing 15 charges, largely in relation to his conduct of probate matters.

A solicitor who received a caution for possessing a small number of indecent images of children has been suspended from practice for a year. The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal accepted that he had “stumbled” across the images, which were in the lowest category of severity.

A barrister who failed to pay a fine and costs imposed by a disciplinary tribunal and then ignored the Bar Standards Board’s efforts to contact him for four years, has been suspended from practising. Meanwhile, another barrister has been reprimanded for telling the CPS she was qualified for a role there when she was not.

Unregulated legal services providers are generally cheaper and more innovative than regulated law firms, but consumers need to understand the risks of using them, Legal Services Board research has found. The small scale of the problems they cause is such that the oversight regulator said it would not take steps to introduce regulation.

The Law Society has told MPs that plans to give the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) and other regulators full independence should be shelved because of the uncertainty caused by the EU Referendum. The society and SRA also clashed on the former’s bid to take over control of setting professional standards.

The Bar’s professional indemnity insurer has been ordered to reimburse a barrister after it withdrew funding for him to defend disciplinary proceedings because he wanted to appoint a non-panel solicitor. The Financial Ombudsman Service found that Bar Mutual Indemnity Fund did not act reasonably.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has dismissed all charges made against a solicitor including alleged breaches of accounts rules and money laundering regulations, and failing to supervise properly a consultant who had been struck off the roll. It is unusual for charges to be thrown out wholesale.

The Bar Council is looking at whether it needs to take action to protect ‘third six pupils’ from exploitation by chambers as they try to stay in the profession and find a tenancy. It is asking barristers for views on whether this area should be regulated and/or offer guaranteed earnings among other possible reforms.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has placed conditions on the practising certificate of a solicitor who safeguarded more than £100,000 of stolen cash for a charismatic conman posing as the Pope’s banker, and is investigating whether further disciplinary action should be taken.