Solicitors

Two solicitors fined by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal last summer have now been permanently disqualified as trustees by the Charity Commission in an unrelated matter.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority’s new rulebook will come into force some six months later than originally expected. Meanwhile, it has unveiled a new push to check firms’ anti-money laundering compliance.

Some conveyancing solicitors have become “too close to developers” and do not put their clients’ interests first, MPs claimed today. They suggested solicitors should part-fund compensation for mis-sold leases.

Law Society guidance on the use of non-disclosure agreements demonstrates an absence of “ethical leadership” and shows why the profession cannot be allowed to sort such issues on its own.

A solicitor who told a client to pay his firm’s fees into his personal bank account has been struck off. A tribunal did not believe his claim that he had done so mistakenly due to “considerable fatigue”.

An Irish solicitor who acted in negligence proceedings against a law firm in England without the right to practise here has been rebuked and fined by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

A law firm that specialised in mis-sold PPI cases has been fined a record £125,000 for a raft of rule breaches, including sending millions of misleading and unsolicited marketing letters.

A solicitor whose conduct fell “significantly below the standards of probity expected of a company director”, particularly given his legal experience, has been banned from acting as a director.

Nearly two-thirds of solicitors at smaller firms are concerned about the impact of the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s new rulebook, and much more than about Brexit, research has found.

A former City partner who operated “under the radar”, concealing the unauthorised and unregulated status of his firm, has been struck off by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.