Solicitors

A young solicitor jailed for grievous bodily harm has escaped being struck off because of his genuine remorse and low likelihood of reoffending.

Lawyers should have to take online tests every 10 years to prove that they remain competent in their specialist fields, the chair of the Legal Services Consumer Panel said yesterday.

A partner who defrauded his firm of £2.3m over seven years – some of which was done with the help of a client – has been jailed for four years and also struck off as a solicitor.

A solicitor who failed to report that a fee-earner he employed had been convicted of an immigration offence has been rebuked by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

A freelance solicitor has teamed up with a former KPMG partner to launch a divorce business that guarantees its fixed-fee quote for the whole process, including ancillary relief.

Two directors of an alternative business structure have been fined for not supervising a branch office where a fellow director and a bogus solicitor carried out a £3.3m property fraud.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has published details of fines levied against six law firms for failing to confirm in time that they had a compliant anti-money laundering firm-wide risk assessment.

A solicitor who charged a client’s estate fees of over £9,000 during a period of “complete inactivity” has been struck off. He was both its executor and residuary beneficiary.

A solicitor who held nearly 1,500 historical client balances and whose failure to remedy accounts rule breaches was described as a “complete dereliction of duty”, has been suspended for two years.

Colin Poole, the solicitor boss of Claims Direct, deceived the company into paying him £9.75m when he failed to deliver on a promise to divest his interest in his law firm, the High Court has ruled.