News

---

A former partner in the London office of US firm Akin Gump has been struck off after making nearly £25,000 of false expenses claims. He said he was suffering from a severe depressive illness.

MP Sir Norman Lamb has called on the SRA to investigate national law firm Hill Dickinson over claims it failed to disclose a crucial document in a whistleblowing dispute involving the NHS.

Inappropriate behaviour by male barristers in robing rooms and at Bar messes “still abounds”, with many women afraid to speak out, the Association of Women Barristers has said.

The SRA could ask law firms to pay for their own research and writing skills tests when hiring trainees, instead of testing them in stage 1 of the new Solicitors Qualifying Exam, it has emerged.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority was wrong to sanction a senior finance partner at City giant Hogan Lovells for discriminating against his children’s pregnant nanny, a leading regulatory QC has said.

There is evidence that the transparency requirements placed on conveyancers is encouraging consumers to shop around without any sign of a ‘race to the bottom’ on prices, the CLC has found.

There has been a sharp rise in the number of complaints made about the Legal Ombudsman, its service complaint adjudicator has reported – and it is not clear why.

A solicitor’s automated email sign-off sufficed as a ‘signature’ for the purposes of a contract involving the disposition of an interest in land, the High Court has ruled.

The use of cutting-edge technology such as AI has become so powerful that legal regulators will have to regulate the tech itself rather than the providers, according to a prominent academic.

The Ministry of Justice official heading whiplash reform programme has maintained that April 2020 remains the goal, but said minister Lord Keen wants “to get this right and not rush it”.