Compliance & Regulation

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.

There is a lack of trust and visibility of interactive self-help legal tools that are being developed to help access to justice, such as chatbots and online documents, the SRA has found.

Leading criminal law firm Tuckers has been fined £98,000 by the Information Commissioner after a ransomware attack that encrypted nearly a million files exploited its “negligent security practices”.

The government said yesterday it would consider a barrister peer’s call for law firms to register their work on transactions that cover areas of national security.

A solicitor who was “reckless” as to whether the court might be misled over a £2.9 costs bill has been suspended for 12 months by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.