Tribunal lays out Clyde & Co’s “glaring” failures
The failures which led to a record fine for Clyde & Co were “particularly glaring” as it was “a large and, previously, reputable firm”, the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has declared in approving the sanction. It emerged earlier this month that the City practice had been fined £50,000 but the full ruling has only just been published.
ABS start-up led by CILEx Fellow bids for rapid growth
A chartered legal executive has launched a start-up alternative business structure specialising in personal injury but with ambitious plans for expansion into a variety of legal areas, including sports law.
Will pre-election ‘wash-up’ wash out the government’s PI reforms?
Today’s decision to call a general election could give claimant personal injury lawyers breathing space in their fight against the government’s reforms, as ministers now have just a fortnight to ram the Prisons and Courts Bill through Parliament or the legislation will be lost.
ABS update: council bids to “commercialise” legal services, as virtual firm eyes investment
A local authority in Surrey is eyeing up an alternative business structure so it can “commercialise” its legal services in the wake of a partnership with another council coming to an end. Our latest ABS round-up also includes a virtual firm looking for investment to expand, a major deal for a leading probate ABS and a heavyweight appointment.
Tribunal sanctions partners who borrowed from Axiom fund at second time of asking
Two partners found by the High Court to have displayed “manifest incompetence” in accepting £573,000 lent to their law firm by the controversial Axiom Legal Financing Fund, have been respectively suspended and fined by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.
SRA fails in bid to recover £800,000 of intervention costs from Blavo & Co owner
A bankruptcy judge has set aside statutory demands worth nearly £800,000 issued by the Solicitors Regulation Authority against the founder of collapsed firm Blavo & Co, which were to cover the cost of shutting down what was the UK’s leading mental health practice.
Exclusive: Here comes Billy, the robot junior clerk
Innovative chambers Clerksroom is building Billy.Bot, a ‘robot junior clerk’ that will do the work of a traditional barristers’ clerk and also provide basic legal information to online users, Legal Futures can reveal. That is, except for taking a cut of barristers’ earnings.
Does a lack of integrity show dishonesty? High Court says yes as it overturns “flawed” strike-off
A High Court judge has overturned a decision by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal to strike off a former partner of national law firm Bond Dickinson, because the distinction it drew between acting without integrity and being dishonest meant the whole case against him was flawed.
Significant rise in number of solicitors struck off, as tribunal faces ever more complex cases
The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal struck off 35% more solicitors in the last calendar year than the one before, its annual report has revealed. Meanwhile, the legal costs awarded to the Solicitors Regulation Authority for bringing the prosecutions rocketed from £1.7m to over £3m – an increase of 76%.
Paralegal who lied on CV barred from solicitors’ profession
A paralegal who secured a job on the back of a false CV and later faked letters to hide the fact that he had missed a court date has effectively been thrown out of the profession. Among other things, he claimed to have attended Yale University, whereas in fact he had just submitted a research paper for the law review, which was not published.
