Regulation

A solicitor who loaned £3.4m from clients’ estates and private lenders to other clients and “known individuals” – a broking operation he had carried out for decades – has been struck off.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal “fell into serious error” in finding no case to answer against a solicitor accused of making a fraudulent costs claim, the High Court has ruled.

Family lawyers should be forced to follow good practice to protect children from “acrimonious legal representation”, and should embrace multi-disciplinary practice, a major report has concluded.

A “reckless” solicitor who admitted registering properties with the wrong purchase price and failing to carry out anti-money laundering checks has agreed to leave the profession.

The country’s largest trade union has criticised the Law Society for planning redundancies instead of furloughing staff, as well as slashing its presence outside of London.

The SRA has come under fire for how it deals with sole practitioners and solicitors at small firms, with the chair of the Society of Black Lawyers saying they were seen as “easy targets”.

The gender pay gap at the Bar is “alive and well”, the chair of the Bar Council said yesterday, after new figures looking at individual practice areas revealed “shocking discrepancies”.

A solicitor who admitted that he “had gone too far and had done too much” by practising while suspended has been struck off, while his supervising partner has been suspended.

This year’s indemnity insurance renewal season has not been as bad as some had predicted, but there has been an uptick in mergers and acquisitions, the SRA has revealed.

The Bar Council is bracing for a £3.2m loss next year with revenue from practising fees – which are tied to barristers’ income – set to tumble because of Covid-19.