Compliance & Regulation

A solicitor who loaned £3.4m from clients’ estates and private lenders to other clients and “known individuals” – a broking operation he had carried out for decades – has been struck off.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal “fell into serious error” in finding no case to answer against a solicitor accused of making a fraudulent costs claim, the High Court has ruled.

A “reckless” solicitor who admitted registering properties with the wrong purchase price and failing to carry out anti-money laundering checks has agreed to leave the profession.

The SRA has come under fire for how it deals with sole practitioners and solicitors at small firms, with the chair of the Society of Black Lawyers saying they were seen as “easy targets”.

A solicitor who admitted that he “had gone too far and had done too much” by practising while suspended has been struck off, while his supervising partner has been suspended.

Members of the public still do not “fully understand” the role of the Solicitors Regulation Authority and leads to complaints about its service, the organisation’s independent reviewer has found.

A former partner at Womble Bond Dickinson has been fined for using the firm’s client account as a banking facility, as has a current partner who unwittingly took over after he left.

A solicitor who moved client funds around different accounts to hide the money he was taking for himself – and caused pay-outs from the SRA Compensation Fund – has been struck off.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority may not allow solicitors to pass on to clients the cost of holding their money if negative interest rates become a reality, an official has suggested.

A solicitor has been struck off after trying to intimidate an officer from the Solicitors Regulation Authority by saying he was “genius level talent” who would sue the officer and “end the SRA”.

The High Court has refused to aggregate as one claim various actions a Yorkshire law firm’s indemnity insurer is facing because of a multi-million pound fraud run by one of its partners.

An immigration lawyer who made what he described as “huge money” by facilitating a dubious international finance transaction has been suspended indefinitely by a tribunal.

A solicitor who overcharged two estates by £275,000 has been struck off, but his partner – and younger brother – has avoided the same sanction after saying he was “too trusting”.

Law firms have been urged to change their retainers now so they can charge clients for holding their money, given the “possibility, if not likelihood” of negative interest rates.

An employed barrister convicted of fraud after claiming expenses he was not entitled to has avoided being thrown out of the profession by a Bar disciplinary tribunal.