Compliance & Regulation

A solicitor found guilty of assaulting his elderly mother with a pan has been indefinitely suspended to allow him the chance to address his problems with alcohol.

Regulators of legal services must develop plans for “remedial action to address competence issues” among lawyers, according to a draft policy statement published today by the Legal Services Board.

The Legal Services Board is to launch a review of professional indemnity insurance to ensure “the right balance is struck” between protecting consumers and the cost of that protection.

A solicitor who lied to both his regulator and insurer about improper withdrawals from client account of almost £670,000 by a conveyancer he employed has been suspended and not struck off.

A solicitor who misused client money after excluding his accountants from his firm’s financial processes and cutting out his salaried partners too has been struck off.

A male trainee solicitor at Dentons has successfully appealed a rebuke from the SRA over a sexually suggestive Christmas card he left on the desk of a female colleague.

A personal injury lawyer who the SRA accepted was a “diligent and caring solicitor” but was under “significant pressure” from his employer has been cleared of dishonesty by a tribunal.

The number of reports about barristers’ conduct outside their professional lives continues to rise, the BSB has revealed. It also highlighted problems with victims of bullying not being treated with dignity.

A solicitor who used money inherited by a jailed client to pay off his law firm’s overdraft has been struck off, with an attempt to blame a former employee dismissed as “nonsensical”.

A North-West law firm and one of its partners have been fined for undertaking 113 conveyancing transactions over four years that avoided £3m in stamp duty land tax.

Solicitors need to understand better the different roles of the Law Society and Solicitors Regulation Authority, the chair of the SRA said this week.

Two large law firms – Osborne Clarke and Eversheds Sutherland – have said that they will offer all their trainees the opportunity to work part-time from September 2024.

A personal injury lawyer who failed to tell six clients that their claims had been struck out, instead misleading them into thinking they were active, has been struck off.

Firms should relieve lawyers who hold their anti-money laundering compliance roles of some of their fee-earning workload and consider appointing deputies too, the SRA has said.

The Law Society has strongly attacked plans unveiled yesterday by the Solicitors Regulation Authority to scrap the Solicitors Indemnity Fund, which provides cover for post-run-off negligence claims.