Compliance & Regulation

The Solicitors Regulation Authority taking over the regulation of chartered legal executives risks confusing consumers, the Law Society has argued.

A solicitor who misappropriated £200,000 from the estates of clients and overcharged them by almost £200,000, has been struck off by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.

A law firm that acted on both sides of a conveyancing transaction without obtaining consent from the buyer has been rebuked by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

Lawyers should pay a levy of £150 each through their practising fees to fund social welfare law, and there should also be a £30 levy on county court cases, an event heard yesterday.

The Law Society has warned the Solicitors Regulation Authority not to ask the profession to stump up millions to boost its compensation fund without consulting first.

The regulator of chartered legal executives has rejected warnings from barristers of a “deskilled” advocacy profession with a “third and lower tier”, if it goes ahead with granting higher rights of audience.

Chambers need to have “mechanisms and guidance in place” to ensure their barristers are complying with UK sanctions, the Bar Standards Board has said.

The Legal Ombudsman has proposed a 7% increase, or £1.2m, in its budget to nearly £18m next year, with delays at the complaints-handling body set to continue for longer than anticipated.

A convicted sex offender accidentally given access by a leading law firm to a vulnerable child’s confidential information has been found guilty of contempt for not complying with court orders to delete it.

Commercial law firms must be prepared to publicly justify acting for controversial clients and not hide behind professional arguments like access to justice, ex-Allen & Overy senior partner Guy Beringer has said.

There are “several discrepancies” between the quality of the service solicitors believe they are providing and what consumers perceive, research for the SRA has found.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has fined two law firms over £12,000 each for anti-money laundering failures, one having accepted source of funds confirmation from a Ukrainian law firm.

Nearly six in 10 law firms are failing to publish the full cost and service information required by the transparency rules, a report for the Solicitors Regulation Authority has found.

A solicitor who practised unauthorised and handled reserved probate work for a company owned by her non-solicitor son after her firm closed has been suspended for three months.

A High Court judge has referred a solicitor and a barrister to their regulators for “indefensible” conduct, motivated by money, that contributed to his decision to overturn an $11bn arbitration award.