Compliance & Regulation
Consultancy for law firms and investors spins out of City practice
A specialist strategic consultancy advising lawyers, investors and regulators has spun out of a City law firm as demand for help in navigating the legal market grows.
Law firms disagree on what should be considered a complaint
Law firms are divided over what should be regarded as a complaint from clients, a survey by the Solicitors Regulation Authority has found.
Judge slashes law firm’s costs because of Mazur
A regional costs judge has described how he applied the ruling in Mazur to cut the costs awarded to a law firm in a housing possession case from £3,000 to less than £500.
Pioneering AI law firm untroubled by impact of Mazur
The Mazur ruling will have no impact on the work of the first regulated AI law firm as the technology is not conducting litigation, its founder has asserted.
SSB Law victims pile pressure on SRA over other volume claims firms
The collapse of SSB Law was not a one-off and a wider review of the SRA’s handling of volume claims firms is needed, victims of the scandal have argued.
Law firm boss struck off for using client money to pay debts
A law firm owner who used client money to shore up his firm and pay personal debts in the face of cash flow problems has been struck off.
Give facts not suspicions when whistleblowing, in-house lawyers told
In-house lawyers considering whistleblowing have been advised by the Law Society to “disclose specific information with factual content, not suspicions or unfounded allegations”.
SDT distinguishes its definition of dishonesty from the court’s
A solicitor found to have been fundamentally dishonest in a personal injury claim has been cleared of dishonesty by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.
Is AML move the first step towards single legal regulator?
The government’s decision to rationalise the oversight of AML supervision could be a precursor to the entirety of legal regulation, a leading practitioner has suggested.
KC: Regulators should promise no action over pre-Mazur breaches
Regulators should assure non-authorised people who may have inadvertently conducted litigation as found by Mazur that they will not face criminal prosecution or disciplinary action.
SDT removes restrictions on solicitor turned compliance consultant
The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has removed restrictions on a solicitor who, after being suspended for three years, became a compliance consultant.
SRA: Client account “still on reform agenda”
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has not kicked changes to client account – and the interest solicitors earn on it – into the long grass, its chair warned solicitors yesterday.
Legal regulators unhappy at loss of AML role to FCA
Regulation by the Financial Conduct Authority for anti-money laundering will feel “very different” for law firms, the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s chief executive has predicted.
Philip: I thought about resigning in wake of SSB report
The chief executive of the Solicitors Regulation Authority said yesterday that he did consider resigning in the wake of the report on SSB Law but decided that “it wasn’t the right thing”.
Mazur “the inadvertent result” of Legal Services Act drafting
The Mazur ruling likely came about because the Legal Services Act 2007 inadvertently failed to codify what had been custom in the legal profession for a long time, two experts have argued.
Blog
Beyond the PII premium – rethinking risk
Professional indemnity insurance renewal is often treated as an annual pricing exercise. But it is also a chance to show how effectively you identify, manage and mitigate risk.
The AI governance gap in law firms and why it matters now
A third of law firms are already using AI tools with no formal policy in place to govern how AI gets used, what data goes into it, or who’s accountable when something goes wrong.
Information isn’t oversight – lessons from the PM Law review
The PM Law review’s real findings perhaps point to a failure mode applying to any organisation sitting on scattered risk information.
Reports
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