Compliance & Regulation
Mayson: Lawyers must prioritise public interest over clients
Lawyers seem to have forgotten that the public interest trumps the client interest and this needs to change, Professor Stephen Mayson has argued.
Barrister disbarred for making ‘fundamentally dishonest’ PI claim
A barrister who a court found had been fundamentally dishonest in making a personal injury claim has been disbarred.
SRA lays out major reforms to how solicitors hold client money
Major changes to the way law firms hold client money, including not retaining interest and restricting the collection of fees in advance, were proposed yesterday by the SRA.
“Reasons to be cautious” about pre-approval of law firm M&A
There are “reasons to be cautious” around the Solicitors Regulation Authority becoming more involved when law firms go through mergers and acquisitions, it said yesterday.
SRA set to shift balance of who pays for compensation fund
The 50/50 split between individual solicitors and firms in their funding of the SRA Compensation Fund should be changed to 70/30, the regulator has recommended.
Moorhead: “We have to change the way lawyers think and behave”
The leading figure on legal ethics in the UK has called for the creation of an independent commission charged with improving “honesty, integrity and effectiveness in the use of law”.
Barrister who held and dipped into client money suspended
A direct access barrister who impermissibly held a divorce client’s money and then did not pay all of it back has been suspended for 18 months by a disciplinary tribunal.
Barristers “wrongly think they work within AML regulations”
Barristers are wrongly stating that their work is covered by the money laundering regulations in their annual declarations to the Bar Standards Board, it has emerged.
Risk assessment failures land more firms with AML fines
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has issued fines totalling £57,000 to eight more law firms for failures in their anti-money laundering controls.
Solicitor “created hundreds of file notes” to bolster costs claim
A judge has condemned a solicitor for “the worst example of tampering with a file of papers that I have ever encountered” in reducing a bill claimed at nearly £260,000 to zero.
SDT “right to strike off” solicitor involved in fraudulent PI claim
The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal was right to strike off a solicitor who took part in a fraudulent personal injury claim, even though he was not the instigator, the High Court has ruled.
Tribunal clears solicitors over volume litigation misconduct
The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has dismissed allegations of misconduct against two high-profile solicitors over their handling of volume financial mis-selling claims.
Employment law silks clash over impact of BSB equality duty
Two leading employment law silks have clashed over the new, proactive equality duty proposed by the Bar Standards Board, disagreeing on how much of an impact it will have on barristers.
Immigration firm “advised beyond its competence”
A tribunal has rejected an appeal from an immigration adviser and firm whose registration was cancelled for breaches of the OISC code that were “as extensive as they were serious”.
Solicitor left abandoned law firm in “chaotic state”
A solicitor who “abandoned” his law firm, leaving his office “in a chaotic state” with piles of letters thrown away as a fire hazard by neighbouring tenant, has been struck off.
Blog
When the person who needs help is the partner
A law firm can have excellent support on paper and still have a serious gap. The gap is the person who cannot imagine using it.
SRA supervision and AI: what firms will be asked to prove
AI intensifies scrutiny of whether firms can demonstrate that they were in control of the systems through which legal services were delivered.
How ELD NextGen will improve employers’ liability tracing
The Employers’ Liability Tracing Office is continuing work towards the launch of ELD NextGen, the next generation of the employers’ liability database, in early 2027.
Reports
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