Regulation

An “effective system” is needed for monitoring the quality of criminal defence lawyers, a report has argued, identifying the way “perverse financial incentives” bear on the provision of services.

The Bar Standards Board is to cut the length of time that sanctions imposed on misbehaving barristers appear on its website, on the Bar Register and when it responds to requests for information.

The new president of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives has called for more action to ensure equality of opportunity for his members within the legal profession.

The government has pledged to change the law to ensure that employees signing non-disclosure agreements receive independent legal advice, and work with the SRA on updated guidance.

Individual practising fee levels for 2019/20 should remain at the same level as the current year, with Compensation Fund contributions falling, the board of the SRA has decided.

The former head of private client at London firm Kingsley Napley has been fined £15,000 for transferring over £1.5m from the estate of a wealthy foreign national to his widow when he should not have.

Disgruntled clients are more likely to target law firms with “deep pockets” for negligence claims than underinsured freelance solicitors, an expert in law firm regulation has warned.

The impersonation of lawyers to commit advance fee frauds has been added to the list of large-scale cyber-attacks from which the National Cyber Security Centre is trying to protect the public.

A London solicitor has been fined £2,500 for accidentally submitting duplicate receipts for taxis to his top-100 law firm, amounting to just £200. He blamed the errors on the long hours he was working.

There is a “huge amount of interest” among lawyers in becoming freelance solicitors under the new SRA rules, but they have been warned not to hand in their notice just yet.