Regulation

A campaigner who used her email address as a committee member of the Solicitors International Human Rights Group to conduct unlawful immigration law work was convicted this week.

A “disgraceful” solicitor disappeared with over £415,000 of client money and apparently went travelling to Malaysia, warning his trainee solicitor that “there are going to be some angry clients”.

A barrister working as a trade union’s in-house lawyer is considering a claim for false imprisonment against the Metropolitan Police after he was briefly arrested on a picket line.

A solicitor who acted where there was a real conflict of interest and paid out almost £6m from buyer clients before they had obtained any security in the flats they were hoping to buy, has been fined.

Law firms assume – wrongly – that their professional indemnity insurance covers them if they are investigated or prosecuted by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, research has warned.

A solicitor who was duped into employing a bogus solicitor, who then facilitated a £1.2m conveyancing fraud, has been struck off. The fee-earner stole the identity of a genuine solicitor.

Alan Blacker, also known as Lord Harley and one of the most talked-about solicitors of recent years, has today received a suspended prison sentence for benefit fraud.

A solicitor who used £80,000 of client money to refurbish her offices – and paid out another £165,000 of client money after falling victim to two email scams – has been struck off.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority will take into account the short period of time law firms have had to comply if they fall foul of today’s new anti-money laundering rules, it has said.

City firms with ‘onshore’ offices in cities such as Belfast and Manchester are breaking professional rules by not making it clear to clients where the work is being done, groundbreaking research has suggested.