Compliance & Regulation

The SRA has withdrawn all its allegations against a solicitor and non-lawyer after the Foreign Office advised against taking evidence remotely from a crucial witness in Dubai.

The Law Society wants solicitors to pay £1.76m more towards its operations next year, taking the amount the profession contributes to nearly £37m.

The solicitor struck off for tweets on Israel and Palestine shifted from making potentially valid political points “to being purely offensive and stooping to use racist and antisemitic language”.

HM Treasury is seeking improved “proportionality” and “additional clarity” in plans for technical changes to the 2017 Money Laundering Regulations.

The outgoing head of the LSB has questioned why ‘trade associations’ like the Law Society and Bar Council receive a “statutory funding stream” from regulatory fees paid by lawyers.

Complaints to the Legal Ombudsman that require investigation will have to wait for nearly three months before work begins and up to nine months for a conclusion.

A solicitor jailed in New York for 20 months after being convicted of conspiring to defraud the US Internal Revenue Service has been struck off.

A solicitor who dishonestly misled his client, the court and opposing solicitors into thinking he was working at a law firm, when he was not, has been struck off.

A law firm owner who misled the High Court over the conduct of failed judicial reviews in immigration cases and tried to shift some of the blame on to a paralegal has been struck off.

The Bar Standards Board has decided not to investigate a gender-critical barrister who was accused of being transphobic by misgendering two trans lawyers.

The government last week closed what campaigners called a “small loophole” to ensure that NDAs do not prevent victims from accessing legal and other advice relating to criminal conduct.

The Bar Council said yesterday that membership of the men-only Garrick Club creates “the potential for unfair advantage” when it came to practitioners needing references to become judges.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority needs to speed up its investigation into the collapse of Sheffield law firm SSB Law, MPs said this week, with one calling out “dodgy” solicitors.

The Legal Services Board is set to trim back the increase in its budget for the coming year to 10%, while also approving a 7% rise in the Legal Ombudsman’s budget.

MPs’ backing for a review of legal regulation has split opinion in the market, pitching the Legal Services Consumer Panel and Professor Stephen Mayson against the Law Society.