Compliance & Regulation

There is an “underlying core of dissatisfaction with legal service provision, expressed through the complaints system, that is not changing or being sufficiently addressed”, the chief legal ombudsman has said.

A solicitor who made misleading statements to his law firm and the SRA about convictions for drink-driving and driving while disqualified has been struck off.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority is to encourage large law firms to start reporting their ethnicity pay gap and introduce ‘exit questionnaires’ for solicitors leaving the profession.

A former partner at leading US firm Gibson Dunn & Crutcher found by a High Court judge to have deliberately misled the court has failed in his appeal against being struck off.

A solicitor suspended from practice almost a decade ago has been refused re-entry to the profession due to doubts about whether he is ready for it.

Some law firms have gone too far in pursuing their clients’ interests, but the need for solicitors to act in the public interest as well is becoming more important, a debate on the impact of the Ukraine crisis heard.

A former senior Crown prosecutor who was convicted of unlawfully accessing files relating to convictions of his ex-wife’s partner has been suspended from practice.

Addressing so-called SLAPPs is “a behavioural issue requiring regulatory interventions” against lawyers as much as using legislation, the government has said.

A solicitor who intercepted a complaint about her sent to her firm’s compliance officer for legal practice, and then replied from his email address, has been struck off.

The Legal Services Consumer Panel has called for a “robust plan” to tackle incompetence by lawyers in “high-risk areas”, such as immigration and criminal advocacy.

A male law firm owner has been fined for saying “mmm, I like what I see” to a young woman applying for a paralegal position and telling her he only employed “beautiful women”.

A law firm handling uncontested flight delay claims did have an equitable lien over the compensation, the Supreme Court has ruled, overturning the Court of Appeal.

A barrister who mocked opposing counsel in her submissions to an employment tribunal and sighed loudly while her opponent was speaking has been reprimanded and fined.

A partner in a London law firm has been fined £25,000 for allowing its client account to be used as a banking facility and failing to make adequate identity checks.

The Legal Ombudsman is in crisis but “refusing to acknowledge serious and fundamental concerns” facing the organisation, the Public and Commercial Services union has warned.