Solicitors

There have been “frustrations” with the speed of governance reform at the Law Society, its president has admitted as he tried to calm the shock caused by the resignation earlier this month of its chief executive over that issue. But he also claimed the threat of losing its guaranteed funding was being used to “create fear” within the organisation.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority is planning to require law firms to publish their fees for services such as divorce, wills or conveyancing, it has emerged. In line with the recommendations of the Competition and Markets Authority, it will also look a few areas of business law, such as commercial leases.

The Law Society’s freedom of information adjudicator has criticised the Solicitor Regulation Authority for giving an “unfortunate impression” that it is not committed to transparency because of the way it handled disclosure requests relating to struck-off solicitor Alan Blacker.

The Law Society’s governance troubles – with the resignation of chief executive Catherine Dixon earlier this month – are proof that it is “unsuitable” for any role in the regulation of the profession, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has told the Legal Services Board.

The president of the Law Society and chief executive of the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) have clashed in public over the latter’s controversial proposal to allow solicitors to practise from unauthorised businesses. They also sniped at each other over the independence of the SRA.

A solicitor who applied to vary a condition on his practising certificate made when a disciplinary tribunal suspended a five-year suspension from practice, now instead faces the possibility of having the ban activated after it emerged during his application that he had breached the condition.

The Bar will “truly be able to say that barristers are better educated in the law than solicitors” if the Solicitors Regulation Authority presses ahead with its reform of education, law lecturers have said in an excoriating response to the regulator’s consultation.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has thrown out charges against a solicitor for Rupert Murdoch’s News International accused of unreasonably advising and commissioning surveillance of two high-profile lawyers bringing phone hacking cases.

City solicitors, regional solicitors, consumers and the Law Society have all pushed back at the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s plans to reduce the two years that students have to spend in workplace training before qualifying.

A senior judge has accused solicitors of “blackmailing” the immigration tribunal in an extraordinary attack that also branded their conduct as “disgraceful” and “shameful” in not pursuing the appeals they had lodged.He also warned that some barristers had wrongly seen their role as protecting their instructing solicitors.

US law firms will have less incentive to employ UK-qualified lawyers as a way to access European market and the UK solicitor title will become less desirable after a hard Brexit, the Law Society has warned. In any event, transitional arrangements to ensure continuity if negotiations are not concluded with two years after article 50 is triggered are essential,

A north London law firm has been rebuked for misleading its client into thinking that it had made a visa application on his behalf. It is one of a series of recent disciplinary cases, including the bankrupt insolvency barrister fined for not paying over fees to his trustee in bankruptcy.

Figures from the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal have highlighted gaps of a year or more between some decisions by the Solicitors Regulation Authority to refer cases for prosecution and actually sending over the case papers.

The criminal division of the Court of Appeal has taken the unusual step of announcing its intention to refer a City law firm to the Solicitors Regulation Authority. The move came after the court ordered businessman Hitendra Patel and criminal law specialists Neumans to repay interim costs of £500,000 to the Lord Chancellor at a hearing last month.

The High Court has overturned a decision by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal that cleared two solicitors accused of misusing £573,000 lent to their law firm by the controversial Axiom Legal Financing Fund.