Compliance & Regulation

A Surrey law firm has been fined £10,000 for breaches of the anti-money laundering rules in its training, approach to risk assessment and in a conveyancing transaction which produced £850 in fees.

A solicitor jailed for more than three years for forging Land Registry documents in a family dispute with the owners of a Newcastle takeaway has been struck off.

Controversial Solicitors Regulation Authority plans to cut the maximum award from its Compensation Fund from £2m to £500,000 are facing rejection by the Legal Services Board.

The extent to which losses caused by cyber attacks are covered by law firms’ professional indemnity insurance policies is to be clarified by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

A solicitor acted for both sides in a house sale at an undervalue between a 78-year-old woman and her 34-year-old boyfriend, which was set aside by the High Court on the grounds of undue influence.

Two solicitors who issued £1m in loan notes to prop up their firm have been struck off for misusing the money and leaving their investors nursing huge losses.

A management accountant jailed for stealing £400,000 from a major City law firm over six years has now been banned from working in the legal profession.

A veteran solicitor who was tricked by an email fraud to pay out £290,000 in proceeds from a conveyancing transaction to a third party has been fined £10,000.

A solicitor has begun a petition urging the Solicitors Regulation Authority to allow firms to make unsolicited approaches to consumers online, saying the blanket ban goes too far.

A tribunal has rejected an appeal by a solicitor against a £1,000 fine imposed by the SRA for breaching a written agreement he made during probate litigation.

A former partner at Wolstenholmes – the conveyancing firm whose catastrophic collapse cost the profession £13m – can become a partner once more after a ban was removed.

A solicitor who was struck off more than 20 years ago after being found in contempt of court and breach of undertakings to the High Court, has been restored to the roll.

A junior solicitor struck off last year after she left confidential documents in a locked case on a train is to have a retrial to reconsider the impact of her mental health on her actions.

A newly qualified solicitor who said she was “blinded by panic” when she lied about sending an email containing personal data to the wrong person, has been spared a strike-off.

A solicitor who forged a qualified colleague’s signature on conveyancing documents while still a trainee has been struck off, with a tribunal rejecting her claim that she had been authorised to do it.