Compliance & Regulation

A solicitor involved in property transactions where due diligence on clients and funds was severely lacking has agreed to leave the profession rather than face a disciplinary tribunal.

The Bar Tribunals & Adjudication Service has rejected the argument that a starting point of 12 months’ suspension for sexual misconduct is too much for some less serious types of behaviour.

It is “impossible for solicitors to leave their practising certificates at home completely” when it comes to behaviour in their personal lives, the president of the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has said.

Clients should be put at the heart of legal technology by law firms, including being asked for consent before artificial intelligence is deployed, solicitors have been told.

High-profile solicitor Karen Todner is to face the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal over allegations of financial mismanagement. The tribunal is also to hear a case involving leading London firm Mishcon de Reya.

A solicitor who lost an unencrypted USB stick full of client information that was subsequently found by a member of the public has been rebuked by the SRA.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has described as “bizarre and not credible” an account given by a City partner of how she valued at £220,000 legal work for a client she had billed at only £3,800.

The past year has seen a “step change” in the adoption of legal technology and innovation, in part as a result of Covid-19, a major piece of new research has found. However, significant barriers remain.

Men are four times more likely than women to appear before the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, despite gender parity in the profession, academics have found.

A solicitor found to have misled a court, lied to a client about receiving money from them and falsely held himself out as a notary public has avoided being struck off.

Parliament should extend the courts’ supervisory jurisdiction over solicitors’ undertakings to cover those given by incorporated law firms, particularly LLPs, the Supreme Court said today.

Solicitors under investigation by their regulator are increasingly citing workplace bullying as a reason for their misconduct, according to a report published yesterday.

The High Court has ruled that the Bar Standards Board made “unjust and unsustainable” decisions in refusing a Bar student’s application for an exemption from the vocational element of his training.

Most law firms are planning to formalise hybrid working arrangements for staff but a significant number have yet to deal with all the compliance implications, research has found.

The Lord Chancellor yesterday described CILEX lawyers as some of the most impressive lawyers he has seen and said the country needed more judges from their ranks.