Compliance & Regulation

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has started visiting law firms named in Parliament amid concerns about their work for Russian oligarchs, it has emerged.

Class action firm Hausfeld has been rebuked by the Solicitors Regulation Authority for allowing its independence to be compromised in the conduct of a massive group claim.

Mid-tier London law firms are “rubbing their hands with glee” at an influx of new oligarch clients turned away by the big City firms, a leading media lawyer has claimed.

Non-solicitors banned from working in law firms by the Solicitors Regulation Authority cannot apply for the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal to revoke the order, the tribunal has decided.

The Bar Standards Board is to ditch the Bar course aptitude test as it is no longer acting as a “filter” of those likely to fail the vocational component of their training.

Legal regulators must not be “overly risk adverse” in supporting the use of technology, given its importance, a senior figure at the Legal Services Board has said.

A Bar Standards Board panel has rejected more than 80 complaints made against a barrister accused of making racist comments on Twitter about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s baby last year.

David Greene, the former president of the Law Society, has failed in his attempt to halt a private prosecution of him at the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, although its scope has been narrowed.

The British Medical Association has accused solicitors of bullying GPs by threatening legal action if the doctor does not provide a Covid vaccination exemption for their client.

An in-house solicitor at Corby Borough Council who lied about giving work to her husband’s company in a bid to have two invoices paid has been struck off.

Solicitors should not view digital identity verification as a second-best option after traditional manual checks, according to a joint statement by LawtechUK and the legal regulators.

A Bar Standards Board panel applied too low a threshold in sanctioning a barrister for a tweet about Muslims that it said would cause offence, a tribunal has ruled.

A standardised form for solicitors to assess the cyber-security arrangements of chambers they instruct has been launched by the Law Society and Bar Council.

Tomorrow marks the 10th anniversary of the first alternative business structure licensed by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, and the firm is still going strong.

The Legal Services Board has approved a 5.8% increase in the budget of the Legal Ombudsman for the coming year, amounting to an extra £850,000 cost levied on the profession.