Regulation

There is evidence to suggest that some of the largest law firms are making errors on the ethical approach of their corporate lawyers, while solicitors’ code of conduct is “hopelessly silent” on the problems of commercial practice, according to a leading academic.

It is important that government plans to enhance the quality of criminal defence advocacy in publicly funded cases “should not be designed around one particular professional group”, the Legal Services Board has warned. The comments can be read as coded concern that some of the proposals seem weighted in favour of barristers.

A barrister convicted by a magistrates’ court of failing to get licenses for his taxi firm has been fined £600 by the Bar Standards Board. Ahtiq Raja was sole director of taxi firm Call a Cab Limited. Until last month, he was based at 9 King’s Bench Walk.

The present model for delivering justice in the criminal, family and immigration courts has become “increasingly challenged” and “many parts of the Bar are in severe pain”, the chair of the Bar Standards Board has said. Sir Andrew Burns said he wanted the BSB to become much more of a risk-based regulator.

The Ministry of Justice is considering transferring the regulation of claims management companies to the Financial Conduct Authority, it has emerged. The aim is to bring in a “much more rigorous regulatory regime for CMCs”.

The Ministry of Justice today laid out plans for a statutory ban on solicitors seeking referral fees from advocates in publicly funded criminal cases – even though it admitted that the evidence for the move was “largely anecdotal” – alongside another quality scheme for criminal defence advocates.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority yesterday launched a massive public opinion poll to help it determine the correct baseline of solicitors’ behaviour on which it should base its regulatory decisions.

The High Court has overturned fines imposed on two solicitors for their involvement in stamp duty land tax avoidance schemes, saying that their conduct deserved more severe punishment. It said the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal had “seriously underestimated the gravity of its own findings”.

A Canadian report on alternative business structures has issued a cautious verdict on majority non-lawyer ownership, judging the model to be as yet unproven, based on the experience so far in England and Wales and Australia.

A barristers’ chambers is set to launch an alternative business structure to help it obtain international work, because it will give the appearance of a solicitors’ firm to foreign clients who do not understand direct access.