Other lawyers

Accountants are set to enjoy the right to handle litigation, advocacy and legal instruments in taxation work after the Legal Services Board approved an application by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. Its recommendation will now go to the Lord Chancellor for approval, despite the opposition of the Lord Chief Justice.

Law firm compliance officers and money laundering reporting officers have been scrambling to get to grips with the biggest shake-up in anti-money laundering rules in a decade, with the final regulations – which were only published on Thursday – coming into force today.

Plans to force lawyers to be more transparent about their fees and complaints records could first be piloted across areas of work that have different regulators. The Solicitors Regulation Authority could also widen its plan for an online register of solicitors’ regulatory data to encompass all regulated lawyers.

The Lord Chief Justice has outlined his “strong opposition” to a bid to allow accountants to handle tax litigation and advocacy work – and in return come under fire from the body that would regulate them. Lord Thomas described the application by the Institute for Chartered Accountants in England and Wales as “entirely premature”.

The Competition and Market Authority’s report on legal services yesterday provoked a predictably mixed response that pitted the Law Society against the Solicitors Regulation Authority, and found support from the body representing paid McKenzie Friends. Meanwhile, the Council for Licensed Conveyancers called on the Legal Services Board to use its powers to force regulatory independence to happen.

A volume conveyancing firm has apologised after sending out letters to clients asking for an additional £200 fee to “prioritise” their files in the run-up to Christmas. Meanwhile, the Council for Licensed Conveyancers is to launch a ‘secure badge’ to help the firms it regulates combat their websites being cloned.

A notarial firm based in Norwich has become the first to be regulated as an alternative business structure by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. The move was triggered by the decision to appoint its first non-notary employees earlier this year.

The Ministry of Justice has no intention of dropping its plans to separate the legal regulators from their representative bodies, it said yesterday as it unveiled reviews of how the Legal Services Board and Legal Ombudsman are operating.

The failure to give Scottish notaries public the right to practise in England and Wales is having a “significant impact on clients in terms of cost and inconvenience”, the Law Society of Scotland has claimed. While intra-UK practice rights for solicitors have been in place since 1990, there are no corresponding provisions concerning notaries public.

A woman who obtained a grant of letters of administration and then used a firm of licensed conveyancers to defend herself against a claim from other potential beneficiaries, has been told by the High Court that she has to pay back to the estate nearly £87,000 given to the firm that has been lost.