Compliance & Regulation

The Russian arm of top City firm Herbert Smith Freehills has been fined £465,000 for breaching UK financial sanctions imposed on Russia.

The case of Jo Sidhu KC – who was disbarred yesterday – “exposes the failure of the current systems to effectively prevent sexual misconduct at the Bar”, Harriet Harman KC said yesterday.

There are no rules that require law firms to take on clients outside of criminal work and so they need to be willing to justify their choices publicly, the former senior partner of Allen & Overy said this week.

The Prime Minister’s anti-corruption champion last night called for a new criminal offence that would see lawyers prosecuted for failing to prevent money laundering and economic crime.

A City solicitor found guilty of a low-level offence of stalking his ex-girlfriend has been suspended from the profession for six months.

Members of the public and firms reporting concerns to the SRA will have to wait up to two months for a response, twice the time it was at the start of the year.

A law firm partner has been struck off for fabricating documents to mislead the SRA about his role in mismanaging a client’s personal injury trust.

A solicitor struck off for multiple rule breaches, including that he actively concealed from his employer the fact that he had taken loans from clients, has failed in his appeal.

Sexual harassment at the Bar that “might have been tolerated and even expected in the past is no longer acceptable”, a disciplinary tribunal has said – but “regrettably, such behaviour is still widespread”.

Chartered accountants are finally to get the right to conduct the reserved legal activity of administering oaths, six years after their regulator gained the power to grant it.

Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds has officially corrected the House of Commons record for describing himself as a solicitor, amid continuing jabs from the Conservatives.

A leading US law firm has been fined £300,000 for failing to have anti-money laundering risk assessments and procedures in place in its London office.

Specialist regulatory lawyers have expressed concern that the High Court ruling in the Dentons case places too much reliance on the SRA’s view of the seriousness of rule breaches.

Disqualified licensed conveyancer Lloyd Davies did not “accurately” reflect the agreed facts of his case in his public statement about it, his regulator said yesterday in an unusual move.

Breaches of AML rules are effectively strict liability offences and the SRA does not need to show severity to prove misconduct, the High Court ruled yesterday.