Compliance & Regulation

A man who appeared before Coventry County Court pretending to be a solicitor has been handed a suspended prison term after being prosecuted by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

Two partners at a former London firm have been fined a total of £25,000 for an improper transfer of a client’s funds and allowing more than 1,700 matters to go stale, among other accounts rules breaches.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has rejected an appeal from a non-lawyer partner banned by the SRA from being a manager of a law firm over a client account shortage.

The Serious Fraud Office has laid out the complexity of its investigation into the Axiom Legal Financing Fund fraud, taking in eight countries, from the UK to the Marshall Islands in the South Pacific.

The solicitor mastermind of the Axiom Legal Financing Fund was yesterday found guilty of five counts of fraud, fraudulent trading and money laundering, and told he faces a lengthy jail sentence

Practising fees for solicitors are to increase by 10%, or £10.4m, in the next year, with the practising certificate fee to rise £20, the Law Society and Solicitors Regulation Authority have proposed.

Kathryn Stone is to add overseeing the conduct of barristers to her current role as MPs’ watchdog after she was appointed chair of the Bar Standards Board.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has said it believes “a new consumer protection arrangement within the SRA” was likely to be more cost-effective than retaining the Solicitors Indemnity Fund.

A senior City partner who told a client to “burn” a private messaging app after it was served with a search order has been found guilty of criminal contempt of court.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority is to go ahead with plans to reintroduce next April an annual application fee of up to £40 for non-practising solicitors who want to stay on the roll.

A High Court judge has rejected a potentially “career-ending” contempt application against a solicitor, describing it as “wholly frivolous” and totally without merit.

A solicitor “duped” into paying over £1.2m in sale proceeds to third parties in what turned out to be property frauds has failed in his appeal against being struck off.

Solicitors could be jailed or fined for failures in the way they verify entries on the register of overseas entities, which went live yesterday.

The Bar has improved its compliance with the rules on transparency and more consumers are shopping around for potential providers, Bar Standards Board research has found.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has refused to allow an immigration solicitor to be restored to the roll 21 years after he was struck off for accounts rule breaches.