Compliance & Regulation

Two experienced barristers found to have behaved dishonestly in how they managed their tax affairs – with one receiving a suspended jail sentence – have been disbarred.

A solicitor who lied to her institutional client, her employer and the court to cover up her failure to progress cases has been struck off.

A solicitor who submitted two lasting powers of attorney to the Office of the Public Guardian showing she had witnessed the donor’s signatures – when she had not – has been struck off.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal today struck off the practitioner it found earlier this week had published antisemitic and offensive posts on Twitter.

City firm Clyde & Co “failed to reflect on its own role” in AML rule breaches until a late stage and sought instead to blame one of its partners, the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has held.

A barrister who “recklessly misled” the Bar Standards Board into giving him a practising certificate by falsely stating that he was a door tenant at a set of chambers has been disbarred.

A law firm that did not have sufficient anti-money laundering controls in place for nearly six years has been fined £16,000 for its failures.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal yesterday upheld allegations that a solicitor published antisemitic and offensive posts on social media and also abused SRA staff.

Only the biggest and smallest legal regulators – the Solicitors Regulation Authority and Costs Lawyer Standards Board – have ‘passed’ their annual performance assessments by the Legal Services Board.

The Home Office has rejected changes proposed by the Law Commission almost five years ago, which would have introduced statutory guidance on the suspicious activity reports.

Ministers have asked the Legal Services Board to outline how it plans to approach the regulation of artificial intelligence in the sector by the end of April.

An experienced solicitor has been fined more than £10,000 for taking payments from a client into his own bank account after striking an agreement with the SRA.

The Information Commissioner’s Office has approved a certification scheme which it says will provide law firms, chambers and others with “certainty” when processing personal data.

Reforms to the way legal services are regulated north of the border, including the introduction of alternative business structures with majority non-lawyer ownership, moved a step closer last week.

The “lack of energy” from legal regulators to deal with what appears to be strategic failures of regulation is becoming “mildly ridiculous”, the chief executive of the LSB has argued.