Compliance & Regulation


Dishonest paralegal, drink driving, AML failure – SRA hands out penalties

10 November 2022

A paralegal who used case files he had not worked on as part of his application to be an accredited police station representative has been banned, among the latest sanctions handed out by the SRA.


Law firms under “active investigation” for flouting sanctions regime

9 November 2022

A small number of law firms are being investigated for either actively or negligently breaching sanctions imposed following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it emerged yesterday.


SRA on lookout for solicitors “borrowing” from client money to pay bills

9 November 2022

The Solicitors Regulation Authority is braced for solicitors looking to borrow from client account to help pay their bills in the face of a worsening economy, its chief executive said yesterday.


LSB promises regulators “greater autonomy” in performance regime

8 November 2022

The Legal Services Board has promised the frontline legal regulators “greater autonomy” in its the framework it will use to assess regulators’ progress.


Lawyers should “actively advise” clients on their environmental impact

4 November 2022

Lawyer are not merely “servants of their clients” and should counsel their clients about environmental harms their instructions may lead to, a leading legal academic has argued.


Supreme Court will not hear appeal on professional tribunal members’ pay

4 November 2022

The Supreme Court has refused permission to appeal a ruling that a barrister who sat as a tribunal chair for the Nursing and Midwifery Council was a ‘worker’ and entitled to sickness and holiday pay.


SDT lifts restriction on solicitor holding management position in firms

4 November 2022

The SDT has lifted part of the conditions imposed on a solicitor suspended for a year a decade ago for multiple rule breaches, allowing him to return to law firm management.


SRA rows back on requiring junior staff to challenge bad behaviour at work

3 November 2022

Law firm managers, but not junior staff, are set to have a regulatory obligation to challenge colleagues who treat others unfairly or without respect, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has said.


LeO seeks 9.6% budget rise equivalent to £7.20 per solicitor

3 November 2022

The Legal Ombudsman is seeking an “inflationary” 9.6% increase in its budget for 2023-24 to £16.8m as it aims to “drastically reduce” the complaints backlog.


Philip: SRA will make full use of unlimited fining power for economic crime

3 November 2022

The Solicitors Regulation Authority will make full use of the proposed new power to issue unlimited fines against solicitors and firms caught up in economic crime, its chief executive has warned.


SRA fines overhaul “of grave concern” to solicitors

2 November 2022

There is “much” in how the Solicitors Regulation Authority will implement changes to its fines regime which “should be of grave concern to the profession”, Birmingham Law Society has warned.


Knights partner fined after assault and drink-drive convictions

2 November 2022

A partner at listed law firm Knights convicted of assault by beating and separately drink driving has been fined £1,700 by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.


Ex-solicitor siblings fail in High Court appeal against strike-offs

1 November 2022

A sister and brother struck off as solicitors for their role in dubious investment schemes have failed in their appeal to the High Court.


Chambers “do not know money laundering status of barristers”

1 November 2022

A significant number of chambers do not know whether their barristers have declared that they are subject to the money laundering regulations, the Bar Standards Board has warned.


SRA refers firms handling matters worth £149m to crime agency

31 October 2022

The Solicitors Regulation Authority made 20 suspicious activity reports to the National Crime Agency in the past year, relating to solicitors handling £149m of potentially criminal funds.

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