Compliance & Regulation

The Ministry of Justice is formally looking at whether interest on some client accounts could be diverted to fund legal services for people unable to afford advice, Legal Futures can reveal.

A conveyancing assistant who signed a form purporting to be her line manager because she was under pressure from her client has been barred from working for law firms.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has dismissed an allegation that a solicitor planted an unwanted kiss on the lips of a more junior colleague at their firm’s spring party.

There is “a growing case” for a review of the regulatory framework created by the Legal Services Act 2007, the Lord Chancellor has acknowledged.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has called for the power to launch “wide-sweeping inspections” of law firms without needing the trigger of a specific allegation of misconduct.

Pupillage providers using blind or contextual recruitment techniques have a higher proportion of male and White pupils than those who do not, Bar Standards Board research has found.

A former City solicitor who was one of the architects of a Ponzi scheme that multiplied into several investment frauds has been jailed for 15 years.

Law firms handling bulk financial product mis-selling claims have been warned about their conduct of cases by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

A solicitor struck off after being convicted of immigration law offences while suspended has now been jailed for seven and a half years for fraudulent immigration advice.

A barrister has failed in a challenge to her removal from the Parole Board after she directed the release of a violent prisoner based on a mistaken understanding of the facts.

A criminal defence solicitor convicted of failing to pay a combined £104.38 at a Harvester restaurant and to a Just Eat delivery driver has been struck off.

A male barrister disbarred for sexual harassment is to have the sanction redetermined because the panel appeared to have prematurely decided it, the High Court has ruled.

A former partner at Slater & Gordon who deceived a client for 17 years about the progress on her claim – when in fact he did nothing on it for all that time – has been struck off.

Unregulated providers of will writing and online divorce services should not make “misleading comparisons” with solicitors, the Competition and Markets Authority has warned

A probate manager who took £634,000 from estates while working at two law firms has been jailed for four years after pleading guilty to charges of fraud by abuse of position and money laundering.