Compliance & Regulation

A prosecuting barrister suspended for “unwanted behaviour of a sexual nature” towards a “very vulnerable” female defendant acted intentionally rather than recklessly, a tribunal has ruled.

CILEX switching regulator to the Solicitors Regulation Authority may be a good idea but both have failed to provide the evidence to prove it, the Legal Services Consumer Panel has said.

White students are almost twice as likely to be sponsored by a law firm through law school than Asian and Black students, major new research for the Solicitors Regulation Authority has found.

A barrister has been reprimanded by a Bar disciplinary tribunal, after being convicted in Malawi of attempting to export hemp to the UK.

A solicitor who stole cash from a vulnerable client using her debit card while acting under a lasting power of attorney has been struck off.

A solicitor who misled a vulnerable family law client into sending explicit photographs of herself to his personal mobile phone has been struck off.

The number of complaints received by law firms went up by about a fifth between 2019 and 2023, the SRA has found – but averages out only at four per practice.

Efforts by the Solicitors Regulation Authority to speed up investigations are falling short of some of the targets introduced last year, it has emerged.

Members of the BSB clashed with senior staff last week over how to deal with the large number of foreign lawyers seeking to be called in England and Wales but who do not intend to practise here.

A law firm in Nottingham that failed to perform undertakings it gave on two property transactions – allowing another party to register a charge on one of them – has been fined £12,400.

The SRA has proposed a 336% hike in compensation fund contributions for law firms in the wake of the spiralling cost of law firm failures.

A senior law firm staff member who used her late mother’s disabled badge to park in a disabled bay close to its offices has been placed under controls imposed by the SRA.

A barrister who failed to comply with a court order to pay £54,600 to a former salaried partner in his law firm has been suspended for six months by a Bar disciplinary tribunal.

Lawyers and claims management companies making volume complaints to the Financial Ombudsman Service on behalf of clients will be charged £250 per case, it has proposed.

The Court of Appeal has rejected former solicitor Sophie Khan’s bid to overturn a contempt of court ruling sought by the SRA that will see her head to jail for a second time.