Compliance & Regulation
SRA worried about firms over-reliant on client account interest
The SRA will ask next week whether it is ever right for solicitors to retain interest received on client account money, saying it is worried that some firms rely on it to stay solvent.
Unapologetic SRA dismisses Axiom Ince report as “opinion”
The leaders of the SRA yesterday refused to apologise to the profession about the Axiom Ince collapse as they dismissed the report criticising its actions as just opinion.
Axiom Ince failures are “history for us”, says SRA chair
What went wrong with the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s supervision of Axiom Ince is “in many respects… history for us”, the regulator’s chair told the profession today.
SRA imposes “interim” conditions on work of SSB Group chief
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has imposed conditions on the practice of SSB Group co-founder Jeremy Brooke while it continues its probe into what went wrong.
Solicitor suspended for allowing unadmitted person to run law firm
A solicitor who allowed an unadmitted “friend” to run a law firm of which he was nominee director and shareholder, has been suspended for two years.
Law firms treating AML training as “tick-box exercise”
Many law firms treat anti-money laundering training as a “tick-box exercise”, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has found.
Only a fifth of law firms fully compliant with AML rules
Only 22% of law firms checked by the Solicitors Regulation Authority for their approach to anti-money laundering in the past year were fully compliant with the rules.
NQ solicitor struck off for faking emails and misleading new employer
A newly qualified solicitor who lost her job for falsifying progress on a matter and then did not tell her new employer why she had moved on, has been struck off.
Client bias “not a factor” in complaints about BAME solicitors
Groundbreaking research has contradicted the views of academics and solicitors that bias amongst clients in part explains why BAME solicitors are overrepresented in reports to the SRA.
SRA takes action against two ex-Axiom Ince employees
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has banned two former employees of Axiom Ince from working in the profession in future without its permission.
Legal Ombudsman seeks 10% budget hike as delays persist
The Legal Ombudsman has proposed a 10.2% increase in its budget, or £1.8m, as it struggles to bring down the longstanding backlog of complaints.
Axiom Ince report: The full story of what went wrong at the SRA
The review of the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s handling of Axiom Ince shows it missed an opportunity to uncover the fraud a year before it eventually shut the firm down.
Axiom Ince report: No law firm should go years without an SRA visit
Law firms should not go “many years” without receiving a visit from the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the Carson McDowell report for the Legal Services Board has recommended.
Criticism rains down on SRA but M&A controls spark worry too
Criticism of the Solicitors Regulation Authority poured in yesterday in the wake of the report into how it dealt with Axiom Ince, although the notion of more controls on M&A sparked concern.
SRA “should have done more” to prevent Axiom Ince, says LSB report
The SRA “did not take all the steps it could or should have taken” ahead of the collapse of Axiom Ince, the review commissioned by Legal Services Board declared today.
Blog
Listening, learning and leading The Solicitor’s Charity with care
As I prepare to hand over the mantle of chair of The Solicitor’s Charity next month, it doesn’t feel like an end. Instead, it feels like a wonderful journey.
Is competition in the legal sector stifling innovation?
As the legal sector’s competitive landscape continues to evolve, Nobel laureates remind us that innovation is not inevitable,and that competition may not always be an incentive to innovate.
What high-performing consumer claims firms get right
Recurring concerns about parts of the volume claims sector show that the gap between well-run firms and those struggling to manage volume effectively is widening.
