Solicitors

Solicitors who ceded control of their firms to non-lawyers – in one instance they claimed their practice had been taken over by a criminal gang – have been sanctioned by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal. In the first case, it struck off three partners following mortgage frauds that have already cost the profession nearly £3m.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has made a direct plea to government to use next month’s Autumn Statement to make good on the plan announced in last year’s to grant it full independence from the Law Society.

Three partners at well-known London law firm Fladgate have been sanctioned by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal for allowing its client account to be used as a banking facility. Just over £4m went in and out of client account without any underlying legal transaction, in breach of the accounts rules.

Two City solicitors struck off following a rare private prosecution before the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal have been struck off for a second time, two years after the High Court remitted the verdict but upheld a finding of dishonesty.

A solicitor-led investment consultancy has sought an alternative business structure licence as part of its plan to expand and exploit what it called a “gap in the market” for lawyers in advisory services. It has two solicitor partners and until now offered unreserved legal activities.

Significant numbers of new advocates are “weaker than might be hoped on basic knowledge” of ethical rules, a major report has found. The report also found that ethics training before and after qualification was “insufficiently robust or frequent to enable confident ethical practice amongst new advocates”.

A solicitor who ignored restrictions on his practising certificate and worked as a sole practitioner when he was not meant to has been suspended by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal. He told the tribunal that he was “only trying to make a living” and that the restrictions meant “very few firms were willing to take him on”.

The Solicitors Qualifying Exam (SQE) – the centralised test proposed for would-be practitioners – will be split into two stages, with the first consisting mainly of computer-based questions, the Solicitors Regulation Authority revealed yesterday.

Legal executives are increasingly less likely to want to train as solicitors, switching to a trainee contract after having been a paralegal can involve a decrease in contact with clients, a major survey has found. The research said workplace experience helps to develop the competences needed to be a solicitor.

A trainee solicitor who misled clients that their claims were being progressed when they had actually been struck out, and also sought to mislead the court, has accepted a rebuke and £1,000 fine to avoid a referral to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.