Regulation

Nearly 60% of applicants for the legal practice course refused to disclose their ethnicity last year – an extraordinary rise from the 2.3% who refused in 2019.

An initiative to create a standard non-disclosure agreement for use when beginning negotiations over corporate transactions has completed its first phase, with the publication of a ‘baseline document’.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has refused to remove conditions on the practising certificate of a 63-year-old solicitor who said he wanted to recover his “pride and dignity”.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has refused to terminate an indefinite suspension imposed on a solicitor a decade ago, saying he had not proved he was ready to return to practise.

One-off training sessions and wellbeing schemes do not go far enough to ensure diversity and inclusion, and nothing short of ethnic minority lawyers occupying senior roles in firms will show real change.

A barrister who practised while suspended following his high-profile conviction for possession of drugs that led to the death of his boyfriend has been sanctioned but not suspended or disbarred.

A law firm consultant jailed for communicating with a prisoner on mobile phones that were smuggled into prison has been banned from working in the profession.

The cost of practising for solicitors is set to stay the same even though the Law Society is unable to say at the moment what its budget will be for the next financial year.

Complaints about the law officers not standing up to the government over potentially breaking international law contributed to a huge increase in reports made to the Bar Standards Board.

Measures taken by frontline legal regulators to improve diversity and inclusion are insufficient and based on inadequate evidence, according to a report published today.