Regulation

Lawyers are to face a levy to help fund government action to tackle money laundering and ensure delivery of its economic crime plan, Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced in yesterday’s Budget.

A 66-year-old male solicitor found guilty of sexual assault when he tried to kiss a 15-year-old girl in a pub has been struck off in an incident described as “thoroughly unpleasant”.

A barrister convicted of assault after beating a woman and of failing to surrender to custody has been reprimanded and suspended from practice for four months.

The High Court has rejected a bid to strike out the claim by various public figures that the legal department of MGN Group knew about phone hacking at the Daily Mirror.

A pioneering solicitor who came off the roll so she could continue providing housing advice from her unregulated firm has returned to the profession after a seven-year “exile”.

A solicitor who failed to properly supervise his firm’s bookkeeper – who went on to steal £25,000 – has been fined £2,000 by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the second such sanction he has received.

The former head of catastrophic injury at a Liverpool law firm has been fined £1,600 for forwarding a “highly derogatory and grossly offensive” email to a colleague.

A High Court judge has allowed three new harassment allegations against barrister Barbara Hewson to go ahead, while upholding an earlier ruling that a host of other ones should be struck out.

An international law firm must disclose documents relating to a failed gold dust investment scheme which showed “the classic hallmarks” of fraud, the High Court has ruled.

A partner accused of repeatedly touching a female employee’s bottom has been cleared by a tribunal – although there was a dissenting judgment, an extremely rare occurrence.