Other lawyers

A law firm shut down by its regulator last year has been ordered to pay former staff £375,000 for multiple employment law breaches.

The Bar Council and Bar Standards Board have announced a series of measures – including furloughing – to make savings of more than £200,000 to support the profession during the Covid-19 crisis.

Seven of the eight frontline regulators have “confirmed their continued commitment” to the Legal Choices website, despite the Solicitors Regulation Authority no longer wanting to run it.

The Legal Services Board is launching a formal review of the Bar Standards Board’s leadership and decision-making in the wake of its controversial decision to stop funding the Legal Choices website.

The Council for Licensed Conveyancers has become the first regulator to offer financial help during the coronavirus crisis, allowing the firms it regulates to defer the regulatory fees they pay.

Legal professionals involved in court and tribunal hearings, as well as those advising people deprived of their liberty or on executing wills are ‘keyworkers’, the Ministry of Justice has said.

There has been a “strong improvement” among the legal regulators in their approach to anti-money laundering, their oversight body has reported.

The Competition and Markets Authority has expressed concern that conveyancers’ advice to leasehold clients may be compromised by their relationships with developers.

The Legal Services Board is ramping up pressure on the Law Society, the Bar Council and other approved regulators over ensuring the independence of their regulatory arms.

Firms of licensed conveyancers will only be able to use third-party managed accounts if it is in each client’s best interests, their regulator has proposed.

The role of the conveyancer is undoubtedly going to change as much of the administrative side of the role becomes automated over the coming years, a new report has predicted.

The Bar Standards Board has been told that it needs to act more quickly on how it plans to educate the public about barristers after its widely criticised decision to stop funding Legal Choices.

The Legal Services Board could start reviewing regulators’ case files to increase its oversight of the quality of their disciplinary decisions in the wake of the Leigh Day case, it has emerged.

Demand for notarial services is increasing and Brexit could give it a further boost, the new president of the Notaries Society has said. The challenge was how to recruit enough new notaries to meet demand.

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.