Solicitors

Simon Armitage, a sole practitioner jailed for four years in October for fraud, has been struck off in his absence by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal. Although the solicitor had wished to come off the roll voluntarily, it was “in the public interest” for his misconduct to be “aired before the tribunal”.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has again maintained the City bias on its board with its latest batch of appointments. Like last year, two City solicitor members have left the board and been replaced with two more – one from magic circle firm Freshfields and the other in-house at ITV.

Solicitors should abandon the concept of “perfection” and concentrate instead on improving their performance, a City training chief has said. The legal learning leader at Hogan Lovells said the firm was one of the first big practices to opt into the new non-point based CPD regime introduced in April.

A Hull law firm has been closed by the Solicitors Regulation Authority because there was “reason to suspect dishonesty” on the part of a partner and member of staff. Companies House showed that HSBC has a fixed and floating charge over all of the firm’s assets.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has again criticised the way the Solicitors Regulation Authority prosecuted a case against a solicitor, after deciding that a partner who had a “genuine but misguided” belief about the status of one of his employees had not acted dishonestly in what he told his insurer.

There is no “current procedure” by which the Solicitors Regulation Authority informs law firms that non-solicitor members of staff have been banned for working for them, it has emerged following a case where national firm DWF took on an employee who was later banned for an incident in her previous role.

The Law Society has condemned plans by the Solicitors Regulation Authority to revolutionise the training of solicitors, warning that they could “promote nepotism” and favour “wealthier students”. The plans include introduction of a Solicitors Qualifying Examination.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has issued its first waiver to a law firm it regulates to allow it to use the Bar Council’s escrow service BARCO, with three other firms in the pipeline, it has emerged.

An influential Conservative MP has said he is “very keen” to see how the legal regulators could work “much more closely together”. Alberto Costa is a solicitor and member of the justice select committee.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has set out plans for a centralised assessment test, the Solicitors Qualifying Examination, for all those wanting to join the profession. The new exam would not be introduced before the 2018/19 academic year.