Compliance & Regulation

Californian legislators have blocked efforts by the State Bar to consider non-lawyer ownership of law firms, in the latest battle over alternative business structures in the US.

The SRA is planning huge increases in the fines it can impose for misconduct by wealthy solicitors – from the current £50,000 to £805,000 – while reducing them for lower earners.

A solicitor who called himself a notary when he was not and ‘apostilled’ documents despite not being allowed to has been rebuked after he said he was unaware of the restrictions.

A solicitor was manifestly incompetent in failing to progress probate matters for as long as a decade, but his misconduct did not amount to a lack of integrity, a tribunal has ruled.

The barrister who left his chambers following a storm last year over a tweet about a “stroppy teenager of colour” has had a £3m discrimination claim against the set thrown out for being time-barred.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has contradicted the claim made by notorious ex-solicitor Dr Alan Blacker to the Charity Tribunal earlier this year that it paid him damages for defamation.

LawtechUK is to look at how technology can support greater access to legal services for both consumers and SMEs in the next phase of its development, the organisation’s new director has said.

A former City law firm owner has been fined by Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal for “inadvertent” errors in allowing his client account to be used as a banking facility.

A partner who told a trainee solicitor to change the date on a mortgage deed before sending it to Companies House and then to the Land Registry has been struck off.

The Charity Commission has begun an investigation into the Joint Armed Forces Legal Advocacy Service in the wake of the continued involvement of notorious struck-off solicitor Dr Alan Blacker.

A City partner who allowed a trial to be livestreamed to observers outside the UK without the court’s permission has been rebuked by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

A veteran solicitor caught on CCTV four times giving cash to arrested clients at a Kent police station has been struck off. He said he had acted with the “utmost stupidity”.

A senior QC has called for the “fundamentally contradictory” rules on what barristers can say in public about their cases to be re-examined.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal heard fewer cases involving sexual misconduct by solicitors last year than it expected, given the high number investigated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal was right not to order the Solicitors Regulation Authority to seek information from the BBC on behalf of a solicitor facing prosecution, the High Court has ruled.