Compliance & Regulation

A solicitor who did not pay outstanding disbursements for seven years, using them instead to prop up his personal injury firm, has been struck off.

The pandemic has had more of an impact on incomes at the lower-earning end of the Bar than among the big billers, according to new research by the Bar Standards Board.

The funder of a law firm that went bust owing it £1.6m has failed in an attempt to recover the money from the practice’s professional indemnity insurer.

A well-known law firm acted for a client without receiving signed authority from him, having relied on his aunt to provide identification documents, it has emerged.

The biennial snapshot of the solicitors’ profession shows the “real challenges” for large firms in making progress towards diversity, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has said.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has rejected an application for restoration to the roll from an ex-solicitor who it had sanctioned three times and had been convicted of fraud.

A top-10 law firm will float on the stock market in the next couple of years, a senior former legal regulator has predicted. He also argued for rapid regulatory authorisation for lawtech start-ups.

Mishcon de Reya was in the news last week as its planned stock market listing was delayed and the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal published the reasons for fining the London firm £25,000.

The number of pupil barristers has rebounded after the pandemic sent it crashing, while women increasingly dominate the junior end of the Bar, new figures have shown.

The US and its allies should take “significant steps to crack down on the Western enablers of Russian kleptocracy” such as law firms, an influential American think tank has argued.

The Bar Standards Board is considering whether intermediaries to direct access barristers should come within its regulatory control following the demise of Absolute Barrister.

An immigration solicitor certified a lasting power of attorney for a walk-in client without checking his capacity, allowing the man’s son and attorney to misuse some of his money.

The Legal Services Board is aiming to reduce inconsistencies in the sanctions imposed across the legal profession in cases such as sexual misconduct, racial harassment and bullying.

The High Court has rejected an appeal from a criminal law barrister suspended for six months by a Bar disciplinary tribunal for lewd comments to a female mini-pupil.

The Legal Services Board has refused to ‘de-designate’ an accountancy body as a probate regulator over concerns that its members are now practising unregulated.