Regulation

Communications giant BT has handed over ownership of its alternative business structure to listed law firm DWF, it has emerged. Meanwhile, an Italian law firm has set up a BSB-regulated ABS.

A solicitor who transferred the title of a property from a joint owner without checking whether they had agreed to it – and when they knew nothing about it – has been rebuked by the SRA.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal is expecting to adjudicate on a steady stream of sexual misconduct cases in the coming year, its annual budget has revealed.

The Competition and Markets Authority has ramped up the pressure on the Bar Standards Board over its decision to stop funding the cross-regulator Legal Choices website.

A solicitor who forged three documents to help him in an investigation by the Solicitors Regulation Authority has been struck off. He also forged the dates of legal charges and a mortgage deed.

The Legal Services Board has issued a thinly veiled warning to the Bar Standards Board over the need to invest “substantially” in consumer information after withdrawing from funding Legal Choices.

A woman who set up a fake law firm email address so as to provide a bogus reference to a real firm looking to employ her has been banned from working in the profession.

The low number of suspicious activity reports made by solicitors relating to possible terrorist financing indicates under-reporting, a senior policeman told the profession this week.

A study of 40 law firms which suffered a cyber-attack over the past three years has found that more than £4m of client money was stolen from 23 of them.

The Legal Services Board has heard calls for regulators to take a more “hands-on” approach to ensuring that lawyers remain competent through their careers.