Solicitors

A solicitor who submitted a series of false business expenses to his firm – including three that were actually for a birthday dinner for his wife and friends – has been struck off by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal. He was also found guilty of charging false travel expenses to clients.

Research into the growing trend of law firms switching regulator has begun so as to assess any risks for consumers and whether there may be unintended consequences. The Legal Services Board is undertaking the work and will look, among other things, at the extent to which new regulators check and use a lawyer or firm’s previous regulatory history.

A solicitor has been struck off after letting his firm be run by non-lawyers who then took more than £8m in funds supplied by the controversial Axiom Legal Financing Fund. He is the fifth solicitor to be struck off because of involvement with the Axiom fund.

A solicitor who used client money for her own benefit while she was suffering from alcoholism has been struck off. The medical evidence meant that the Solicitors Regulation Authority, prosecuting, dropped its allegations of dishonesty against her.

A practice manager who is his firm’s compliance officer for finance and administration has been rebuked and fined by the Solicitors Regulation Authority for letting his firm’s client account be used as a banking facility among other offences.

The High Court has overturned an unusual decision by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) to strike out for abuse of process the prosecution of five solicitors because the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) had failed to put forward a “coherent or manageable case to answer”.

A legal executive who acted for clients without telling her employer, and paid client money into her own bank account, has been fined £2,000 and restrictions placed on her practice now that she has qualified as a solicitor.

Solicitors view “self-dealing” – acting in their own, rather than the client’s, interests – money laundering, bribery and falsifying a CV as the most serious rule breaches, and bringing weak cases and mismanagement problems as the least, a major report has found.

Three solicitors who borrowed more than £3m from the now collapsed Axiom Legal Financing Fund have been struck off for using the money to fund their practice, which was not the stated purpose of the loan. They are the latest, but not the last, to face disciplinary action in the wake of the Axiom’s failure.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has for the first time made lack of access to legal services one of its priority areas of work. “Only a third of people with a legal problem seek professional advice. And only one in 10 will take advice from a solicitor or barrister,” it said.

The High Court has rejected a solicitor’s bid to overturn conditions placed on his practising certificate by the Solicitors Regulation Authority – but also criticised the regulator for the time it has taken to act in the case. The court said there was “a very real risk” that the solicitor had allowed his client account to be used as a bank account.

The Legal Services Board has argued more strongly than ever that professional bodies must be fully separated from regulators. In a letter to the justice select committee, Sir Michael Pitt, chairman of the LSB, argued that there was scope under existing arrangements for them to “resist reforms”.

A cashier who took nearly £750,000 from City law firm Ince & Co’s office account has been jailed for more than three years. Juliette Holland, 46, from Hockley, Essex pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three years and four months imprisonment at Basildon Crown Court.

A solicitor who allowed his wife to make improper transfers from his firm’s client account has been suspended by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.

National law firm Cartwright King is launching a franchise scheme for solicitors who want to set up their own practices, which will operate in a similar way to a virtual firm but allow franchisees to benefit from an existing national brand.