Regulation

The Bar Standards Board has been told that it needs to act more quickly on how it plans to educate the public about barristers after its widely criticised decision to stop funding Legal Choices.

The new rule that prohibits solicitors from making unsolicited approaches to members of the public is not a blanket ban on all advertising, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has clarified.

A jailed solicitor involved in the UK’s biggest ever tax fraud must repay £3m of his ill-gotten gains or face a further nine years in prison, a judge at the Old Bailey has ruled.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has written to 6,500 law firms asking them to make a declaration that they have a firm-wide risk assessment complying with the anti-money laundering regulations.

A solicitor who took client payments into his own bank account rather than through the virtual law firm he worked for has agreed to leave the profession for at least five years. The firm lost £50,000 as a result.

A solicitor who stole thousands from friends he acted for and laundered money stolen from a grandmother has been jailed.

A solicitor who spent £46,600 of a disabled client’s interim payments on costs and disbursements instead of on rehabilitation, has been fined £50,000 by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has savaged two witnesses who gave evidence on behalf of the Solicitors Regulation Authority against a Yorkshire sole practitioner.

The Bar should focus on “real inclusion” and “actionable, practical steps” to improve diversity rather than tick boxes, a black barrister and human rights activist has argued.

A solicitor who helped himself to almost £88,000 from a dementia victim for whom he was acting under a power of attorney has been struck off by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.