Compliance & Regulation

A solicitor who lied to a lender, a client, his law firm and the Land Registry to cover up the lack of progress made on his clients’ matters – but blamed his secretary – has been struck off.

New technologies such as biometrics, machine learning and artificial intelligence can now form part of the anti-money laundering armoury, law firms have been told.

A solicitor who was jailed for four years for money laundering offences has been readmitted to the roll after the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal found he had been “totally rehabilitated”.

A law firm which did the conveyancing work on two failed off-plan housing developments was not operating an unregulated collective investment scheme, the High Court has ruled.

A solicitor who lied to her client about the progress of her case and then to the Solicitors Regulation Authority about it, and later to professional indemnity insurers, has been struck off.

A solicitor who ‘witnessed’ the signatures of a client’s father that were already on property documents, without checking their authenticity, has been fined £20,000.

A “seriously inept” solicitor who transferred money to another law firm’s client account, in breach of a court order that his firm should hold it, has been fined £8,000.

Three partners have been fined for charging conveyancing clients for the firm’s indemnity insurance, as well as “variable sums” for filling out a simple standard form.

A solicitor who let his firm’s client account be used as a banking facility for payments from clients’ investors totalling over £4.6m has been fined £15,000.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority was justified in prosecuting two law firm partners even though all of the allegations were dismissed, a tribunal has ruled.

The Supreme Court has refused to interfere in a ruling that legal professional privilege which covers an email does not extend to any attachments.

A solicitor who misled the First-tier and Upper Tribunals in immigration cases about anti-gay legislation in Uganda has been struck off by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.

A sole practitioner in his 70s has been struck off after practising for over six months without professional indemnity insurance, despite telling others he had cover.

A former paralegal at City giant Herbert Smith Freehills has been banned from the solicitors’ profession after submitting multiple overtime claims with fake approvals on them.

Law firms in London, Manchester and Bath have become the first sanctioned for failing to publish price and service information, with compliance made a condition of their authorisation.