Compliance & Regulation

LegalZoom has become the first business to have an alternative business structure license in both the US and England and Wales after winning approval in the pioneering state of Arizona.

The possibility of a single regulator for all lawyers in Scotland – and the title of ‘lawyer’ having statutory protection – is being canvassed by the Scottish government.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has banned a string of non-solicitors from working in the profession for dishonesty, including theft of electronic devices, fabricating letters and faking a client’s signature.

A conveyancing solicitor who misled clients he was related on how their fees would be calculated has been fined by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

A solicitor’s failure to conduct proper client ID checks and to confirm that the client owned the property he said he did inadvertently facilitated a fraud, it has emerged.

A barrister convicted of failing to disclose a change in her circumstances for the purposes of council tax, and who was then found to have lied at a re-hearing, has been disbarred.

Nearly one in three barristers have personal experience of bullying, harassment and/or discrimination in the past two years, Bar Council research has revealed.

The government has rejected a call from the Solicitors Regulation Authority that small law firms should have to pay its new economic crime levy.

More than 10% of law firms whose compliance with anti-money laundering rules was checked by the Solicitors Regulation Authority in the last year have been referred for investigation

A “patronising” solicitor who made multiple “racially, ethnically or religiously motivated comments” to young women at an event – whom he later accused of being ‘woke’ – has been struck off.

The Bar Standards Board, the Solicitors Regulation Authority and CILEx Regulation have joined forces in a bid to improve the standard of practice in coroner’s courts.

The Legal Services Consumer Panel has warned that interim compensation funds put in place by two of the smaller legal regulators could be quickly “wiped out”.

An employment tribunal has refused to strike out a claim that a chambers discriminated against a pupillage applicant who had previous dealings with the QC who headed the pupillage committee.

Decisions on the regulation of solicitors will be made by just nine people from next year, the smallest the board of the Solicitors Regulation Authority has ever been.

A solicitor who overcharged a client for their stamp duty and paid the excess to an unknown third party has been struck off. He also lied to the SRA about his whereabouts to avoid answering its questions.