Compliance & Regulation
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.
Fine for solicitor who sent “threatening” Covid letters to schools
A solicitor who sent “threatening” letters to at least 244 secondary schools, telling them they could be at risk of criminal or civil liability for implementing Covid measures, has been fined £2,500.
“Appalling” partner struck off for creating toxic workplace
A law firm’s co-owner has been struck off for “appalling conduct” that involved violence, bullying and harassment aimed at junior colleagues.
Law firm rebuked for not distributing estate after merger
A Surrey law firm that failed to deal with an estate it took on after merging with another practice has been rebuked by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
Report: Trust in legal services high but more costs transparency needed
Most people have trust and confidence in legal services, but would like the Solicitors Regulation Authority to do more on their cost, major new research has found.
Blog
Why law firms are getting AI supervision wrong
The profession’s response to AI supervision failures misunderstands the nature of LLM output – there needs to be for a shift in the culture.
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.
Reports
Associates
