Compliance & Regulation

A lawtech start-up specialising in identity and source of funds checks for conveyancers has attracted high-profile investors including the co-founders of Funding Circle in raising £1m.

A law firm director has been suspended after failing to ensure that holiday sickness clients referred by introducers had instructed the firm or knew claims were being pursued on their behalf.

Law firms are facing a 30% increase in their professional indemnity insurance this year, and even more for those with bad claims histories, the Law Society has warned.

The SRA needs to introduce a ‘fitness to practise’ regime as a better way to deal with young solicitors with mental health problems, the former chief executive of the SDT has told Legal Futures.

A 5’2” commercial property solicitor has been cleared of assault by beating after she hit a nightclub bouncer over the head with her stiletto.

Accountants and firms regulated by the ACCA will have a pathway to handling all the reserved activities under the plan to transfer supervision of their legal work to CILEx Regulation.

Two former solicitors and a former independent financial adviser have been charged with multiple offences in connection with the collapse of the Axiom Legal Financing Fund.

A struck-off solicitor’s comparison of his treatment at the hands of the Solicitors Regulation Authority with that of George Floyd by US police has been branded a “disgrace” by a tribunal.

A partner in a law firm which acted mainly for Russian and Ukrainian clients has been suspended for nine months after admitting multiple breaches of the anti-money laundering rules. 

An experienced conveyancer has been struck off for falsifying the completion date of a transaction in a report to tax authorities in order to avoid a late registration penalty of £100.

A solicitor who was cautioned by the police for fraud after writing a cheque for £2,000 from client account to himself has been struck off by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.

Solicitors generally fail to carry out due diligence exercises on the people behind what turn out to be dubious investment schemes, a review by the Solicitors Regulation Authority has found.

A solicitor who falsified returns to HM Revenue & Customs so as to underpay stamp duty land tax and pocket the difference in a bid to keep his firm afloat has been struck off.

A City solicitor who received a second police caution for possessing cocaine – but failed to report it out of fear of losing his job and marriage – has been banned from practice for a year.

Legal regulators will have to explain more clearly how they spend their practising certificate fees under revised rules proposed by the Legal Services Board.