Compliance & Regulation

A partner who signed statements of truth in six cases using an absent assistant solicitor’s signature has been handed a short suspension.

Claims management companies have been warned to stop using their Financial Conduct Authority authorisation to lend credibility to their unregulated activities.

Concern among MPs about the fall-out from the collapse of Sheffield-based SSB Law is growing rapidly, while one of the insurers that was pursuing its clients for costs has paused its activities.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has taken action of differing levels of severity in 24 cases where misconduct in relation to non-disclosure agreements was alleged, it has emerged.

A solicitor who concealed from his law firm that he was acting for clients in a personal capacity, getting them to pay £3,250 into his personal bank account, has been struck off.

Two experienced barristers found to have behaved dishonestly in how they managed their tax affairs – with one receiving a suspended jail sentence – have been disbarred.

A solicitor who lied to her institutional client, her employer and the court to cover up her failure to progress cases has been struck off.

A solicitor who submitted two lasting powers of attorney to the Office of the Public Guardian showing she had witnessed the donor’s signatures – when she had not – has been struck off.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal today struck off the practitioner it found earlier this week had published antisemitic and offensive posts on Twitter.

City firm Clyde & Co “failed to reflect on its own role” in AML rule breaches until a late stage and sought instead to blame one of its partners, the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has held.

A barrister who “recklessly misled” the Bar Standards Board into giving him a practising certificate by falsely stating that he was a door tenant at a set of chambers has been disbarred.

A law firm that did not have sufficient anti-money laundering controls in place for nearly six years has been fined £16,000 for its failures.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal yesterday upheld allegations that a solicitor published antisemitic and offensive posts on social media and also abused SRA staff.

Only the biggest and smallest legal regulators – the Solicitors Regulation Authority and Costs Lawyer Standards Board – have ‘passed’ their annual performance assessments by the Legal Services Board.

The Home Office has rejected changes proposed by the Law Commission almost five years ago, which would have introduced statutory guidance on the suspicious activity reports.