Compliance & Regulation


COFA banned for using disbursement payments to prop up firm

22 July 2020

A compliance officer for finance and administration who helped the firm’s owner use £500,000 received for disbursements to prop up the firm has accepted a ban from the profession.


Law firm’s head of BD jailed over indecent images

21 July 2020

The former head of business development at a leading defendant law firm has been jailed for four years after a police raid discovered 6,000 indecent images of children on his computer and other devices.


Gowland joins LSB in chartered legal executive first

21 July 2020

A former president of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives has become the first member of that branch of the profession to be appointed to the Legal Services Board.


Call for impartial websites on quality of lawyers’ services

20 July 2020

Independent websites providing impartial information on the quality of legal services providers are needed to guide people looking for a lawyer, the Legal Services Consumer Panel has argued.


Partner fined for offensive question to gay trainee

20 July 2020

A law firm partner who asked if it was acceptable to call a gay trainee solicitor a “poofter” – and repeated the question to the trainee – has been fined £4,000 by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.


Legal regulators “too slow” with diversity action

16 July 2020

Progress by the legal regulators in understanding and tackling ongoing inequalities in the profession is “too slow” and lacks “strategic direction”, the Legal Services Board (LSB) has said. The oversight regulator said there were “fundamental shortcomings” in the collection of… Read More


Top GC defends in-house lawyers’ approach to ethics

15 July 2020

A leading general counsel has attacked the assumption that in-house lawyers “leave their morals at the door” when they join their companies.


Law firms “could undermine positive impact” of SQE on diversity

14 July 2020

The emphasis on increasing the range and choice of legal training in the Solicitors Qualifying Examination could help remove the blockage to social mobility in the profession.


‘Email threat’ barrister feared “vindictive campaign” against pupil

10 July 2020

The drunken barrister who threatened a fellow member of chambers over a tenancy application did so because he believed there was a “vindictive campaign” to damage the pupil’s prospects.


SRA to review regime for checking solicitors’ competence

9 July 2020

The Solicitors Regulation Authority is to launch a review of its approach to solicitors’ continuing competence, amid calls for spot checks or accreditation schemes to reassure consumers.


Legal assistant banned after lying about passing exams

9 July 2020

A legal assistant who lied about passing his legal executive exams so that his law firm employer would reimburse the course fees has been banned from working in the solicitors’ profession.


Appeal judges reject divorcee’s negligence claim

8 July 2020

The Court of Appeal has upheld a ruling that a negligence claim brought by a woman against her law firm over its work on her divorce was out of time.


Criminals’ ‘go-to’ solicitor struck off while in jail

7 July 2020

A solicitor who was the ‘go to’ lawyer for a gang of criminals because he would not ask too many questions about where their money came has been struck off while serving seven years in jail.


Solicitor amended form of authority not knowing client was dead

6 July 2020

A solicitor who amended a client’s form of authority when he could not contact her and then sent it to her former employer – not knowing she had died – has been struck off for dishonesty.


Covid-19 will hamper ombudsman turn-around, says new chair

3 July 2020

The coronavirus crisis will impede much-needed efforts to turn around the performance of the Legal Ombudsman, its new chair has warned in an interview with Legal Futures.

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Blog


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The SRA needs to admit it got it wrong about SLAPPs

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