Compliance & Regulation

The Law Society and Bar Council have expressed concern about new economic crime provisions put forward by the government that target the legal profession.

A law firm with a “failing” anti-money laundering control environment, leading to multiple rule breaches, has been fined £2,000 by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has granted a law firm access to papers from a recent case to help legal action being taken against the solicitor it struck off.

An explicit requirement on licensed conveyancers to treat customers fairly has been proposed as part of a new statement of ethical principles by their regulator.

Plans to remove the £25,000 cap on fines the Solicitors Regulation Authority can impose in cases of economic crime will enable it to sanction larger law firms properly, the government said.

Four lawyer review and comparison websites have agreed to join a Bar Standards Board (BSB) pilot on whether they can work for barristers and their consumers.

An IT engineer with a serious gambling problem who stole 38 iPhones and 10 laptops worth £23,000 from a law firm has been banned from working in the profession.

A barrister reprimanded for allowing a Twitter account to send “inappropriate and offensive” tweets to a colleague at the same chambers was not their author, a tribunal has confirmed.

The SDT has labelled as “reprehensible” the argument by Sophie Khan that being jailed for contempt of court enhanced, rather than diminished, the reputation of the profession.

A solicitor who confirmed that two affidavits had been signed and sworn in her presence, when they had not been, has been struck off.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has rejected a request from Legal Futures and the Law Society Gazette to return to opening its board meetings to the public and press.

Lawyers should be ethically obliged to advise clients of the serious risks – legal or otherwise – of pursuing activities that risk exacerbating climate change.

The Bar Standards Board is to encourage those it regulates to use terms like ‘racially minoritised’ and ‘marginalised by race’ if they have to use collective language to describe ethnicity.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority is to replace the Solicitors Indemnity Fund next September with new indemnity arrangements that it will run itself.

There has been a sudden spike in the number of law firms of all sizes reporting to the Solicitors Regulation Authority that they are facing financial problems, it has emerged.