Solicitors

The partner at City giant DLA Piper who hit the headlines in 2014 for lewd e-mail exchanges with Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore has been referred to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.

The first academic study of compliance officers for legal practice has found a “tendency” not to report regulatory failures to the Solicitors Regulation Authority. There was also evidence of COLPs at ABSs with mainly non-lawyer management struggling to get across the importance of following the rules.

A solicitor has been convicted of helping launder money on behalf of a man who claimed to be Pope Francis’s banker as part of a massive scam. Buddika Kadurugamuwa will be sentenced later this week after being found guilty of one count of transferring criminal property.

A sole practitioner who overcharged by 500% for private client work has been struck off by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal. The SDT also found that Premji Naran Patel was “robbing Peter to pay Paul” by improperly moving money between different client accounts.

The Ministry of Justice has given its strongest indication yet that, once the legal regulators become independent, lawyers will no longer be compelled to make a financial contribution to their representative bodies.

A solicitor who “exploited” a criminal client who he met in a pub by acting as advocate without authorisation and demanding a £65,000 loan has been struck off. The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal heard that Stephen Paul Kettlewell failed to repay the loan.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has asked the House of Commons’ justice select committee to assume responsibility for holding it to account once independence from the Law Society has been achieved.

A trainee legal executive has been fined £2,000 by the Solicitors Regulation Authority for taking almost £24,000 from his law firm’s client account. BRM Solicitors said Joseph Aaron Cooper had betrayed its trust.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has lifted the indefinite suspension of a solicitor who retrained as a will-writer after suffering a “major depressive illness”. The suspension prevented him from carrying out any work as a member of the Institute of Professional Willwriters.

Three partners at well-known London law firm Fladgate have been referred to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal. The 73-partner firm has said it is “fully supporting” the lawyers, who have all been accused by the Solicitors Regulation Authority of using the firm’s client account as a “banking facility”.

The Lord Chancellor has been awarded almost £1m by the High Court in its battle with a legal aid firm over payments on account. Mr Justice Holgate said the evidence showed “over-claiming to a substantial extent in a substantial number of cases” by Charles Ete & Co.

Local government lawyers have obtained a QC’s opinion in a dispute with the Solicitors Regulation Authority over their ability to provide reserved legal activities to external bodies and individuals, it has emerged. The move follows complaints that the SRA was forcing councils to set up ABSs.

A sole practitioner who brought a “cataclysm” upon himself by failing to protect the interests of children when acting as a trustee, leading to them not receiving the legacies they should have done from two wills, has been struck off and ordered to pay £65,000 in costs. The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal said Timothy John Wilkinson “blamed everyone else”.

Plans by the Solicitors Regulation Authority to introduce a centrally assessed Solicitors Qualifying Examination could create an “even greater diversity problem” for the profession, the Law Society has warned. The society said it could be a “huge issue for those without financial support”.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority, once criticised for taking too long to approve alternative business structures, is now regularly approving applications from legal disciplinary practices in only two weeks, it has emerged.