Compliance & Regulation

A solicitor who described a property developer currently being investigated by the Serious Fraud Office as his law firm’s “best client” has been fined £45,000 for misconduct.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has ruled that a struck-off solicitor, who had still not paid £2,700 of a fine it imposed for a previous offence in 2011, cannot return to the profession.

The SRA Compensation Fund has paid out over £2.7m to clients of the law firm operated by Christopher Michael Bilmes, a solicitor jailed for fraud last month.

A male partner who sang a song about a trainee solicitor’s vagina, accompanied by lewd gestures, at a Christmas party gathering in a pub has been fined £23,000.

The Post Office scandal highlights the dangers of lawyers absorbing and reflecting back their client’s view “without sufficient independence and critical detachment”.

A fee-earner who failed to manage a vulnerable client’s affairs properly – using her own money to cover her errors – and the partner who supervised her have both been sanctioned.

Timothy Schools, the struck-off solicitor jailed for 14 years last summer for pocketing at least £20m from the Axiom Legal Financing Fund, has failed in a bid to reduce his sentence.

Law firm managers who witness unfair treatment should intervene immediately to stop it if possible, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has said.

A partner who acted for property purchasers and lenders and failed to tell the latter that the former were using stamp duty land tax avoidance schemes has been fined.

The need for a “strengthened and harmonised regulatory approach” to tackle the misuse of non-disclosure agreements is being probed by the Legal Services Board.

A partner who tried to “obfuscate his charging of personal expenses” to clients of international firm Reed Smith has been struck off.

Herbert Smith Freehills was yesterday accused of being in an “untenable” conflict of interest with its continued role in the Post Office scandal compensation schemes.

A solicitor who misled the Solicitors Regulation Authority and the Insolvency Service, and failed to co-operate with the Legal Ombudsman has been struck off.

A solicitor’s “moment of madness” in misleading an opposing firm on a matter while she was suspended on disciplinary grounds has avoided being struck off.

A solicitor who used forged cheques from trustees or money from another client to cover up the fact she had failed to submit tax returns on time has been struck off.