Regulation

The battle for the future of legal regulation is set to move into high gear next week with publication of the government consultation on making regulators such as the Solicitors Regulation Authority and Bar Standards Board fully independent of the representative bodies which technically oversee them.

A registered foreign lawyer, whose mortgage frauds over a matter of weeks have cost the SRA Compensation Fund almost £2.5m so far, has been struck off the register. But the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal said his fellow director was “as much a victim as the parties who were subject to the fraudulent transactions”.

The government has agreed that insolvency practitioners should no longer be regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. It said a reduction in the number of regulators would promote “consistency and efficiency” and “could reduce the overall cost of regulation which would ultimately benefit creditors”.

Eversheds and BPP University Law School have launched a six-year apprenticeship scheme leading to qualification as a solicitor. The law firm is believed to be the first to launch a scheme at this level, but its shape depends partly on the fate of the Solicitors Qualification Examination.

The Law Society has apologised to its freedom of information adjudicator after failing to provide him with an “additional and substantial” body of information relating to ‘Harry Potter solicitor’ Alan Blacker, also known as Lord Harley. Adam Sowerbutts described the incident as “troubling”.

A property management firm specialising in residential blocks of flats has turned itself into an alternative business structure, in what is understood to be first move of its kind. “At the moment we’re a property management company with a legal capacity. In 10 years’ time, it is likely to be the other way round,” said director Matthew Young.

Raleys, one of the law firms most strongly criticised for misconduct during the miners’ compensation scandal, has entered administration. Administrators have been appointed and Leeds firm Ison Harrison has taken over existing clients.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority is considering creating an ‘innovation space’, which it said would “help existing firms develop their businesses and encourage new firms to come into the market”. “An innovative legal sector is essential for delivering the efficient, affordable services the public needs,” it said.

A barrister who gained a pupillage by lying about her age, faking references and falsely claiming she had been an assistant district attorney in New York has been disbarred. Her scheme began to fall apart when a clerk at the chambers became suspicious that she was not 29 – she was actually in her late 40s.

A rare bid by a solicitor to overturn an intervention into her practice has failed in the High Court, with the judge finding there was good reason to suspect dishonesty. The bulk of the allegations were that she employed a struck-off solicitor, while later dishonestly denying this.