Solicitors

A third law firm has been fined by the Solicitors Regulation Authority for its involvement in a stamp duty avoidance scheme operated by Inventive Tax Strategies.

Enid Rowlands, new chair of the Solicitors Regulation Authority, has said the regulator should “focus on the job in hand” and not waste time worrying about whether there should be a single regulator.

The regulation of solicitors’ consumer credit work by the Financial Conduct Authority has been postponed again. It has agreed to an SRA request extent the current transitional arrangements until 31 October.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has been forced to rely on outsourcing and recruit more staff after a 49% surge in referrals to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal. It has also identified a series of emerging risks, including public sector cuts.

A total of 49 firms are heading for closure after failing to secure indemnity insurance, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has said. This compares with 138 which were forced to shut for the same reason last year.

The Law Society and Bar Council have joined forces with the British Association of Social Workers and National Union of Journalists to form the ‘Professionals for Information Privacy Coalition’, and express their concern over the controls in place on how the government snoops on professionals.

The Law Society has obtained a groundbreaking injunction that prevents a struck-off solicitor from holding himself out as a solicitor or being involved in a law firm without its approval.

There are increasing reports of law firms allowing their client account to be used by others as a bank account in clear breach of the rules, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) warned yesterday.

The Law Society has called on the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) not to abandon the training contract, which it is said was viewed by other jurisdictions as the “gold standard”.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority is looking to “urgently” conclude its investigation into the activities of the two law firms – Public Interest Lawyers and Leigh Day & Co – whose behaviour was heavily criticised by defence secretary Michael Fallon in the wake of the findings of the al-Sweady inquiry.

The City bias among the solicitors who sit on the board of the Solicitors Regulation Authority has been maintained with the appointment of two new members, including the ex-joint chief executive of Herbert Smith Freehills.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has closed down a Manchester law firm, more than four months after banning its director from conveyancing and ordering him to go on a mortgage fraud and money laundering course.

Justice secretary Chris Grayling has promised criminal law barristers that the government will “take measures” to strengthen the Legal Aid Agency’s ban on solicitors demanding referral fees.

The Law Society has responded to a Bar Standards Board call for evidence on the cab-rank rule by questioning its “operational value”. A survey of solicitors who regularly use barristers found that only one person had actually invoked the rule.

A small firm in Hertfordshire has become the latest law firm to be fined by the Solicitors Regulation Authority for its involvement in stamp duty land tax (SDLT) avoidance schemes.