Regulation

It is wrong to suggest that ‘Chinese walls’ set up by small law firms to prevent confidentiality breaches will “never be effective” – although there is a higher risk of them failing – a judge has ruled.

The Legal Services Board has approved a new rule requiring chambers to include sexual orientation and religion in the diversity data they publish on their websites, whether or not all of their barristers agree.

The government-funded Legal Access Challenge has received more than 85 expressions of interests in applying for funding, the Solicitors Regulation Authority said yesterday.

A barrister who worked without a practising certificate for more than four years – which is a criminal offence – told a disciplinary tribunal he could do with “a good PA”.

Achieving buy-in for technology regulation from everyone involved in lawtech – from developers to users – is crucial to it working well, according to an analysis looking at the lessons for legal regulators that can be drawn from the medical and financial sectors.

The new breed of freelance solicitor – or what will officially be called an ‘independent solicitor’ – could join forces with others in a chambers-style arrangement, the SRA has suggested.

A solicitor who took the “extraordinary approach” of trying to settle his debts of over £115,000 with promissory notes has been struck off. He also used client monies to pay office expenditure.

A key aspect of tech is its potential to help lawyers sell to consumers as part of a multi-disciplinary package that includes unrelated services, where the ‘legal’ part is invisible to the purchaser.

The Law Society recorded a deficit of £11.5m on a budget of £116m in the last financial year, compared to a surplus of £6.7m in the previous 12 months, its annual report has revealed.

White students are significantly more likely to obtain pupillage than those from BAME backgrounds, with the gap widest among those who have not achieved the highest results, new figures have shown.