Solicitors
City firms risk breaking rules with onshore centres
City firms with ‘onshore’ offices in cities such as Belfast and Manchester are breaking professional rules by not making it clear to clients where the work is being done, groundbreaking research has suggested.
Tribunal overturns unfair dismissal ruling against partner
An employment tribunal has ruled that it was wrong to uphold an unfair dismissal claim against a partner in a law firm closed down by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
Solicitor who kept client’s £1,000 court fee is struck off
A solicitor who kept the £1,000 his client paid for a court fee has been struck off. The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal heard that he treated the money, paid into his personal account, as a “loan”.
Law firm was “vehicle” for £5.7m conveyancing fraud
A solicitor who “consciously closed his eyes” to the activities of people he knew were fraudsters, agreeing to buy a law firm which was “purchased from the outset as a vehicle for fraud”, has been struck off.
Solicitor leaves profession over bequest from client
A veteran solicitor who failed to ensure that his client took independent legal advice before leaving him money in her will has agreed to leave the profession.
Lawyers and clients’ “mutually assured immorality” on NDAs
Lawyers and their clients have been guilty of “a kind of mutually assured amorality or immorality” in their approach to non-disclosure agreements, a leading critic of the profession’s approach has said.
SDT promises non-parties “open justice” on access
The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has promised to make “open justice” central to its response to requests from non-parties for access to papers used at disciplinary hearings.
SRA gives up on major indemnity insurance reform
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has ended a controversial five-year project to reform the professional indemnity insurance regime, meaning the minimum level of cover will not be cut to £500,000.
BSB and SRA in firing line over shortcomings
The Bar Standards Board has been told that it needs to act more quickly on how it plans to educate the public about barristers after its widely criticised decision to stop funding Legal Choices.
New advertising rule “not a complete ban”, says SRA
The new rule that prohibits solicitors from making unsolicited approaches to members of the public is not a blanket ban on all advertising, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has clarified.
Blog
The AI question law firms should answer before a client asks it
Most law firms we speak to are already using AI, whether or not they have approved it, because fee-earners are doing it anyway. The tool people settle on is often Claude.
From chat to Cowork: preparing your law firm for agentic AI
AI is evolving quickly. For law firms still working out how to get consistent value from the tools they already have, the conversation has moved on again to agentic AI.
Why good governance matters when managing Law Society forms
Everyday legal transactions rely on Law Society forms. But they are often treated as static templates rather than what they really are: living documents that change over time.
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