Solicitors

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has overridden the objections of the Solicitors Regulation Authority to lift a supervision order imposed on a legal executive after misconduct that took place almost 20 years ago. He had made four false travel expense claims on three fictitious client files.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority is anticipating a bump in claims on its compensation fund as a result of solicitors becoming involved in dodgy high-yield investment schemes, it emerged yesterday. Meanwhile, it batted away renewed complaints about the recent decision to close board meetings for the first time since the SRA was created.

A secretary at a leading City law firm who submitted false cash advances and a paralegal who drafted misleading grounds of appeal in judicial review cases have both been banned from working in the profession.

A government solicitor has been struck off for dishonestly backdating documents in an attempt to cover up his mistake after missing a court deadline in a high-profile case on behalf of the Ministry of Justice. He backdated the documents in order to resist an application for default judgment.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has failed to strike out a damages claim by a solicitor at the High Court who claims it breached his confidentiality when it handed over documents from the firm to that solicitor’s former partner in relation to a separate legal action.

A personal injury firm was forced to sell its multi-track work at a “considerable” loss after the “sudden and unexpected” withdrawal of support from its bank, the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has heard as it fined two partners and a non-lawyer partner for retaining unpaid professional disbursements in its office account.

The former senior and managing partners of Manchester firm Cobbetts, as well as its former finance director, are among eight people who have been referred to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal over alleged incompetence in the demise of the practice.

A law firm has acquired an alternative business structure licence to facilitate an equity swap, as part of its bid to integrate with a firm of Singapore lawyers and comply with restrictive local laws on ownership. A regulatory rule change in Singapore made it difficult for the branches of foreign firms to operate.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority needs to do more to crack down on law firms that take cases from companies that generate leads through cold-calling, the new president of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers has said. He also warned that government PI reforms have been paused, not scrapped.

The Lord Chief Justice has signalled concerns about the impending reform to educating law students, saying that a “very broadly based legal education” and law schools “as the centres of excellence” must not be diluted. Lord Thomas said the start of a legal career “must be at law school”.