Regulation

The Solicitors Regulation Authority spends too much time on diversity training and monitoring, and not enough on assuring that its enforcement staff act in a non-biased way, it has been claimed.

A former partner at a Yorkshire law firm who submitted a false statement to the probate court as part of the oath for executors has agreed to leave the profession.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has rejected allegations that a pro-Beijing lawyer and politician based in Hong Kong called for pro-independence protestors to be “killed mercilessly”.

The president of the Law Society is to step down later this month in the wake of a High Court ruling that the SDT was wrong to dismiss a prosecution brought against him by a former client.

A solicitor and her practice manager husband jailed for legal aid fraud have failed in their bid to set aside a default judgment for nearly £5m obtained by the Ministry of Justice.

The chair of the Bar Council has dismissed as nonsense the suggestion that it had to publicly support the barrister at the centre of a racism row over his comments on Twitter.

A solicitor who said he did not know that he had been appointed a partner and compliance officer for legal practice (COLP) of his firm has been rebuked.

A solicitor who failed to supervise a caseworker he wrongly thought to be a barrister and also fly tipped legal documents containing client information has been fined.

A pupil barrister and animal protection activist has created what is thought to be the first vegan barrister’s wig, made from hemp rather than horse hair.

The “power of the purse”, coming not from solicitors but from their clients, will “make the difference” in improving diversity at the Bar, a leading Black QC has said.

Consumers are “enthusiastic” about the creation of a single digital register of legal services providers, including elements such as fees, reviews and even star ratings, research has found.

A solicitor left clients “high and dry” by failing to register their property purchases and pay stamp duty, while misappropriating some £175,000 of their money, a tribunal has found.

A veteran solicitor did not confirm that his imprisoned client had given instructions to transfer a £300,000 property to his mother, with the client claiming after it happened that he knew nothing about it.

Eight graduate solicitor apprentices have started work at defendant firm Keoghs, one of the first law firms to offer this approach, as we round up a host of SQE and other training news.

Direct access barristers can be looked down on, and ignored by legal directories, because they do not have “well-heeled” solicitors singing their praises, a leading family law specialist has argued.