Regulation

A solicitor has been struck off by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal for misconduct involving fabricating documents in order to convince a client that straightforward applications had been made when they had not. It is the latest example of a rash of solicitors facing disciplinary action for fabrications.

Ignorance about fees, lack of public awareness and “excessive correspondence” from clients are just some of the challenges faced by direct access barristers, a major report by the Bar Standards Board and Legal Services Board has revealed. However, the “overwhelming consensus” was that direct access work would grow in the next few years.

Paul Baxendale-Walker, a struck-off solicitor who went on to run an adult film company and Loaded magazine, has been fined after being found guilty of impersonating an official from HM Revenue & Customs in dealings with the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

The flexible benefits scheme that saw Legal Ombudsman staff effectively paid hundreds of thousands of pounds on top of their salaries in the organisation’s first six years – until the government deemed the payments to be irregular – has been scrapped.

A solicitor who failed to report “serious misconduct” by other members of staff at former Yorkshire firm Legal Development Partners has been fined £2,000. He admitted that he had also allowed his independence to be compromised by allowing “unqualified third parties” to control and influence the firm.

A training provider is suing the Law Society for “six-figure damages” over its claim that Chancery Lane is acting anti-competitively by requiring law firms to buy its training in order to maintain their Conveyancing Quality Scheme accreditation.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has struck off a solicitor convicted of a serious offence after he was allowed to continue in practice following two previous appearances before the tribunal for accounts rules breaches. It conceded that a warning given on his second SDT appearance had been ineffective.

A direct access service providing the public and businesses with fixed-fee unbundled access to barristers, claims to have doubled its turnover in each of the last two years and expects to grow next year. Absolute Barrister has also designed what it says is the first case management system for direct access work.

The Bar Standards Board is to investigate whether male barristers with new-born children should be entitled to a form of shared parental leave, with the Bar Council calling for provisions which would give them a rent rebate from their chambers while not working.

A solicitor who pretended to be carrying out litigation, providing email updates on a case which did not exist, has been struck off by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal. The tribunal said Stephanie Berry argued that her cognitive abilities had been impaired, but provided no evidence.