Regulation

A leading general counsel has attacked the assumption that in-house lawyers “leave their morals at the door” when they join their companies.

City giant Herbert Smith Freehills either compromised its independence or provided incompetent advice in its work for Lloyds Banking Group on the Reading scandal, a group of MPs and peers has claimed.

The emphasis on increasing the range and choice of legal training in the Solicitors Qualifying Examination could help remove the blockage to social mobility in the profession.

Solicitors handling immigration work can only do so from organisations overseen by a legal regulator or the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has decided.

The drunken barrister who threatened a fellow member of chambers over a tenancy application did so because he believed there was a “vindictive campaign” to damage the pupil’s prospects.

The Chartered Institute of Legal Executives has called for a permanent law change after the Land Registry began accepting copies of lasting powers of attorney certified by CILEx lawyers.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority is to launch a review of its approach to solicitors’ continuing competence, amid calls for spot checks or accreditation schemes to reassure consumers.

A legal assistant who lied about passing his legal executive exams so that his law firm employer would reimburse the course fees has been banned from working in the solicitors’ profession.

A solicitor who amended a client’s form of authority when he could not contact her and then sent it to her former employer – not knowing she had died – has been struck off for dishonesty.

An economist, a senior in-house lawyer and the head of one of the Big Four’s alternative business structures have been named on a panel created to advise the Solicitors Regulation Authority.