Compliance & Regulation

Sexual harassment at the Bar that “might have been tolerated and even expected in the past is no longer acceptable”, a disciplinary tribunal has said – but “regrettably, such behaviour is still widespread”.

Chartered accountants are finally to get the right to conduct the reserved legal activity of administering oaths, six years after their regulator gained the power to grant it.

Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds has officially corrected the House of Commons record for describing himself as a solicitor, amid continuing jabs from the Conservatives.

A leading US law firm has been fined £300,000 for failing to have anti-money laundering risk assessments and procedures in place in its London office.

Specialist regulatory lawyers have expressed concern that the High Court ruling in the Dentons case places too much reliance on the SRA’s view of the seriousness of rule breaches.

Disqualified licensed conveyancer Lloyd Davies did not “accurately” reflect the agreed facts of his case in his public statement about it, his regulator said yesterday in an unusual move.

Breaches of AML rules are effectively strict liability offences and the SRA does not need to show severity to prove misconduct, the High Court ruled yesterday.

There is now “clear evidence” that solicitor apprenticeships are facilitating social mobility, analysis by the Solicitors Regulation Authority has shown.

The retirement of SRA chief executive Paul Philip has nothing to do with the Axiom Ince scandal, he has emphasised. Meanwhile, the chair of the BSB is stepping down too.

A solicitor cannot base a victimisation claim against her law firm at the employment tribunal on it reporting her to the Solicitors Regulation Authority, a judge has ruled.

A law firm and two of its partners have been fined nearly £50,000 between them for allowing two wealthy clients to use its client account as a banking facility.

There is a “clear consensus” in Parliament that the SRA must “feel empowered” to crack down on instances of ‘lawfare’, an MP said yesterday.

Lloyd Davies, the high-profile licensed conveyancer who has been permanently disqualified, is now in the process of transferring his shares in his firm, it has confirmed.

Only a single body policing anti-money laundering supervision across the UK legal sector will deliver “the step change in effectiveness that is needed”, a campaign group has argued.

New requirements on legal regulators to strengthen ethical standards from the start of lawyers’ careers have been proposed today.